Template formats

You can author CloudFormation templates in JSON or YAML formats. The same CloudFormation features and functions are available for both formats.

{
  "AWSTemplateFormatVersion" : "version date",

  "Description" : "JSON string",

  "Metadata" : {
    template metadata
  },

  "Parameters" : {
    set of parameters
  },
  
  "Rules" : {
    set of rules
  },

  "Mappings" : {
    set of mappings
  },

  "Conditions" : {
    set of conditions
  },

  "Transform" : {
    set of transforms
  },

  "Resources" : {
    set of resources
  },
  
  "Outputs" : {
    set of outputs
  }
}

---
AWSTemplateFormatVersion: "version date"

Description:
  String

Metadata:
  template metadata

Parameters:
  set of parameters

Rules:
  set of rules

Mappings:
  set of mappings

Conditions:
  set of conditions

Transform:
  set of transforms

Resources:
  set of resources

Outputs:
  set of outputs

When deciding which format to use, pick the format that you're most comfortable working in. Also consider that YAML inherently provides some features, such as commenting, that aren't available in JSON.

The following example shows a YAML template with inline comments.

AWSTemplateFormatVersion: "2010-09-09"
Description: A sample template
Resources:
  MyEC2Instance: #An inline comment
    Type: "AWS::EC2::Instance"
    Properties: 
      ImageId: "ami-0ff8a91507f77f867" #Another comment -- This is a Linux AMI
      InstanceType: t2.micro
      KeyName: testkey
      BlockDeviceMappings:
        -
          DeviceName: /dev/sdm
          Ebs:
            VolumeType: io1
            Iops: 200
            DeleteOnTermination: false
            VolumeSize: 20

Specifications

CloudFormation supports the following JSON and YAML specifications:

Learn more

For each resource you specify in your template, you define its properties and values using the specific syntax rules of either JSON or YAML. For more information about the template syntax for each format, see Template sections.