
Level up CloudFormation with VS Code - dsteenman
https://dannys.space/level-up-cloudformation-with-vs-code
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booi
Most of the time when I see more complication on top of cloudformation, what
you really want is terraform.

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strangelove026
My preferred tool.

A few of the biggest selling points (for me):

\- It feels like writing code instead of writing yaml.

\- To the above you can define your own parameter object types in Terraform.
To create a list parameter in cloudformation requires `CommaDelimitedList`
which can only contain strings.

\- To the above two points, your Terraform stacks can be DRY'd up a bit which
makes them easier to read than a massive 1000 line cloudformation file.

\- Terraform is run completely in your console which is faster and improves
the developer experience.

\- Resources are never "conditionally" replaced. They either are or are not.
Don't know if this is still a thing in Cloudformation land but the resources
change diff Terraform gives you is completely clear.

That all said I don't mind writing Cloudformation, but (again in my opinion)
Terraform is vastly more powerful.

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tracer4201
I’ll try it out. I’ve been writing CloudFormation and using SAM templates for
some recent projects involving Lambda. Defining my general resources is easy
enough but having to define through IAM roles and policies turns into a real
pain super quick.

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markl42
Shameless plug opportunity! On the topic of "more complication on top of
cloudformation", I made a tool that lets you split up cloudformation files
with import syntax.

[https://github.com/magicmark/cf-merge](https://github.com/magicmark/cf-merge)

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MattHodge
Here are some additional things you can do: [https://hodgkins.io/up-your-
cloudformation-game-with-vscode](https://hodgkins.io/up-your-cloudformation-
game-with-vscode)

~~~
dsteenman
Your post definitely contains some good tips! Thanks for sharing!

