Get a list of stack dependencies using CDK cli

Question

Is it somehow possible to get a list of the stacks that another stack depends on using the AWS CDK CLI? For example, given a list of stacks that looks something like:

const app = new App();
const alphaStack = new Stack(app);

const betaStack = new Stack(app);
betaStack.addDependency(alphaStack);

const gammaStack = new Stack(app);
gammaStack.addDependency(gammaStack);

const deltaStack = new Stack(app);
deltaStack.addDependency(betaStack);
deltaStack.addDependency(gammaStack);

I'd like to run a command that could give me output similar to the following:

$ cdk list-deps alpha-stack  # no result

$ cdk list-deps beta-stack
alpha-stack

$ cdk list-deps gamma-stack
alpha-stack

$ cdk list-deps delta-stack
beta-stack
gamma-stack

Specifically, I'd like to be able to run this before I deploy my stacks.

Do you mean nested stacks? If so, you could possibly write a script that uses the `ParentId` field returned by `aws cloudformation describe-stacks` and then trace back the parents. — vmachan, Jul 10 '21 at 20:06
No, not nested stacks. CDK stacks that depend on each other (eg. explicitly or implicitly due to outputs). I've updated the example to try and better reflect what I'm looking for. — Micheal Hill, Jul 12 '21 at 01:27

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 17 '22 at 18:47

5

Run cdk synth STACK_NAME

and you should find the dependencies from cdk.out/manifest.json

❯ jq '.artifacts.STACK_NAME.dependencies' cdk.out/manifest.json
[
  "STACK_NAME.assets"
  ...
]

answered Mar 17 '22 at 18:47

esamatti

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1

this should be the correct answer. (jq command is used not only for reading JSON data but also to display data by removing the particular key. The following command will print all key values of ...) – Tomas G. Mar 29 '22 at 12:24

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 19 '21 at 03:35

In case this helps anyone in the future; the following seems to solve the problem that I wanted to solve:

// the stack that we're interested in finding deps for
const stackName = "...";

// assuming app is as defined in the question
const { stacks } = app.synth();

stacks
  .find(({ stackName }) => stackName === searchForStackName)
  ?.dependencies.forEach((dep) => console.log(dep.id));

Caveats:

It's obviously not built-in to the CLI, and requires exposing app from your CDK definitions.
This does require calling synth on the app. Initially my understanding was that this creates some artifacts within AWS, which I wanted to avoid; but it seems that's not actually the case.
I'm not sure how reliable/stable dep.id is from this snippet/answer. Although it has so far been robust enough for my purposes, dependencies returns a list of CloudArtifact which I'm not certain if it will always represent a Stack.

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 12 '21 at 20:24

0

I know this isn't quite as robust as what you're looking for but here is a useful command to find the stacks that depend on a particular export:

aws cloudformation list-imports --export-name EXPORT_NAME

answered Jul 12 '21 at 20:24

nsquires

899
2
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20

Thanks! I'm trying to do this before anything is deployed, so the stack isn't yet in cloudformation. I've updated the question to clarify – Micheal Hill Jul 15 '21 at 04:45

score -1 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 29 '22 at 12:23

-1

You can also run

cdk destroy stackName

It will ask you for confirmation of the dependencies necesary to destroy your stack.

This is a dangerous operation and should be done with care because it can destroy your stacks.

answered Mar 29 '22 at 12:23

Tomas G.

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Get a list of stack dependencies using CDK cli

4 Answers4