Install aws-cdk with Homebrew, dnf, Nix, apt, zypper

Project links

• Homepage

Commands and aliases

• cdk

Project history

AWS introduced the AWS Cloud Development Kit in developer preview in 2018. The early pitch was infrastructure as code in familiar languages rather than hand-written JSON or YAML templates, with constructs compiling down to CloudFormation.

AWS announced general availability for the CDK's TypeScript and Python support on July 11, 2019. The project then expanded its language and construct ecosystem while keeping CloudFormation as the deployment engine.

AWS CDK v2 became generally available on December 2, 2021 alongside Construct Hub. Version 2 consolidated the AWS Construct Library into aws-cdk-lib, reducing the package sprawl that CDK v1 users had to manage.

Adoption history

CDK was adopted by developers and platform teams who wanted the repeatability of infrastructure as code without giving up loops, functions, types, IDE tooling, and package reuse. AWS documentation describes support for TypeScript, JavaScript, Python, Java, C#/.NET, and Go.

Its package culture grew around constructs: reusable modules that describe cloud resources and higher-level patterns. That ecosystem matters because the cdk CLI is only one piece; real adoption depends on libraries, generated CloudFormation resource definitions, and repeatable synthesis/deploy workflows.

How it is used

Typical usage begins with cdk init, then cdk synth to generate a cloud assembly, cdk diff to compare deployed infrastructure, and cdk deploy to apply changes through CloudFormation. The CLI discovers the app command from cdk.json in the project directory, then falls back to ~/.cdk.json or command-line --app.

Configuration is split across CDK files and AWS shared files. CDK uses cdk.json, ~/.cdk.json, and cdk.context.json for app commands, context, feature flags, and cached lookups; AWS SDK/tooling uses ~/.aws/config and ~/.aws/credentials on Unix-like systems and %USERPROFILE%\.aws\config and %USERPROFILE%\.aws\credentials on Windows.

Why package nerds care

For package nerds, aws-cdk is a Node-distributed cloud compiler dressed as a system CLI. The installed cdk binary coordinates local language runtimes, npm packages, generated constructs, AWS credentials, and CloudFormation APIs, so version skew can matter.

It is also significant because it normalized packaging infrastructure abstractions as libraries. CDK apps are dependency graphs as much as source trees, and the CLI's job is to turn that graph into deterministic cloud assemblies.

Timeline

• 2018: AWS CDK announced in developer preview.
• 2019: AWS CDK TypeScript and Python reached general availability.
• 2021: AWS CDK v2 and Construct Hub reached general availability.
• 2022: AWS CDK v1 entered maintenance on June 1, 2022.
• 2023: AWS CDK v1 support ended on June 1, 2023.

Related projects

• AWS CloudFormation is the provisioning engine targeted by CDK synthesis and deployment.
• Construct Hub is the package discovery surface for reusable CDK constructs.
• Projen, CDK8s, and CDK for Terraform are neighboring projects in the construct-based infrastructure tooling family.
• AWS Amplify Gen 2 uses AWS CDK constructs for custom backend resources.

Sources

• https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/announcing-general-availability-of-construct-hub-and-aws-cloud-development-kit-version-2/
• https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/aws-cloud-development-kit-cdk-typescript-and-python-are-now-generally-available/
• https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/developer/aws-cdk-developer-preview/
• https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cdk/v2/guide/cli.html
• https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cdk/v2/guide/context.html
• https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cdk/v2/guide/featureflags.html
• https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cdk/v2/guide/home.html
• https://docs.aws.amazon.com/sdkref/latest/guide/file-location.html
• https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk