The following command line examples demonstrate how to perform individual CloudFormation actions with the AWS CLI and PowerShell. These examples include only the most commonly used actions. For a complete list, see cloudformation in the AWS CLI Command Reference.

The examples in this guide use the convention of a backslash (\) to indicate that a long command line continues on the next line.

Cancel a stack update

Use the cancel-update-stack command command to cancel a stack update. For more information, see Cancel a stack update.

Continue rolling back an update

Use the continue-update-rollback command to continue rolling back an update. For more information, see Continue rolling back an update.

Create a stack

Use the create-stack command to create a stack. You must provide the stack name, the location of a valid template, and any input parameters. The parameter key names are case sensitive. If you mistype a parameter key name, CloudFormation doesn't create the stack and reports that the template doesn't contain that parameter.

The following examples show how to create a new stack with the specified name, template, and input parameters.

--template-url https://s3.region-code.amazonaws.com/bucket-name/template-name

--template-url "ssm-doc://arn:aws:ssm:region-code:account-id:document/document-name"

Create a stack that includes transforms

Use the deploy command to create a stack that includes transforms. When you create a stack from a template that includes transforms, you must use a change set. The deploy command combines two steps (creating a change set and executing it) into a single command.

Delete a stack

Use the delete-stack command to delete a stack. For more information, see Delete a stack.

If the deletion fails and returns a DELETE_FAILED state, you can choose to delete the stack by force using the --deletion-mode option. These are the following values that can be used with deletion-mode:

After using FORCE_DELETE_STACK, you can use the list-stack-resources command to list the resources that were skipped during the stack deletion process. The retained resources will show a DELETE_SKIPPED status. For more information, see List stack resources.

Describe stack events

Use the describe-stack-events command to describe stack events. For more information, see Monitor stack progress.

Describe a stack resource

Describe stack resources

Describe stacks

By default, the describe-stacks command returns parameter values. To prevent sensitive parameter values such as passwords from being returned, include a NoEcho property set to TRUE in your CloudFormation templates.

Get a template

List stack resources

List stacks

Use the list-stacks command to list stacks. To list only stacks with the specified status codes, include the --stack-status-filter option. You can specify one or more stack status codes for the --stack-status-filter option. For more information, see Stack status codes.

Update a stack

Use the update-stack command to directly update a stack. You specify the stack, and parameter values and capabilities that you want to update, and, if you want use an updated template, the name of the template. For more information, see Update stacks directly.

Validate your template

Use the validate-template command to check your template file for syntax errors.

During validation, CloudFormation first checks if the template is valid JSON. If it isn't, CloudFormation checks if the template is valid YAML. If both checks fail, CloudFormation returns a template validation error.

The following is an example response that produces a validation error.

{
    "ResponseMetadata": {
        "RequestId": "4ae33ec0-1988-11e3-818b-e15a6df955cd"
    },
    "Errors": [
        {
            "Message": "Template format error: JSON not well-formed. (line 11, column 8)",
            "Code": "ValidationError",
            "Type": "Sender"
        }
    ],
    "Capabilities": [],
    "Parameters": []
}
A client error (ValidationError) occurred: Template format error: JSON not well-formed. (line 11, column 8)