CloudFormation Block

The CloudFormation block integrates AWS CloudFormation into your workflows. Use it to describe stacks, list stack resources, inspect stack events, detect drift, fetch templates, and validate templates without leaving the canvas.

Overview

When to Use

• Fetch the status and details of one or more CloudFormation stacks (or all stacks in a region)
• List every resource managed by a specific stack
• Pull the event history for a stack to audit deployments or troubleshoot failures
• Detect configuration drift between a stack's expected and actual deployed state
• Retrieve the live template body for a deployed stack
• Validate a CloudFormation template for syntax and structural correctness before deploying

Configuration

Operation

Dropdown (required). Selects the CloudFormation action to perform. Every value here becomes the tool that runs at execution time.

AWS Region

Short text input (required). The AWS region where the target stacks live, for example us-east-1.

Access Key ID

Short text input (required, password). Your AWS access key ID (e.g. AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE). Store it as a workflow secret and reference it with {{AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID}}.

Secret Access Key

Short text input (required, password). Your AWS secret access key. Store it as a workflow secret and reference it with {{AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY}}.

Stack Name

Short text input (optional for some operations). The target stack name or stack ID. Shown for these operations: Describe Stacks, List Stack Resources, Describe Stack Events, Detect Stack Drift, Get Template. For Describe Stacks it is optional (omit to list all stacks in the region); for the remaining four it is required.

Template Body

Code editor input. The CloudFormation template body (JSON or YAML). Shown only for the Validate Template operation.

Inputs & Outputs

Inputs (all subBlock ids passed at runtime):

• operation (string) — Operation to perform; one of the operation ids listed above
• awsRegion (string) — AWS region
• awsAccessKeyId (string) — AWS access key ID
• awsSecretAccessKey (string) — AWS secret access key
• stackName (string) — Stack name or stack ID (operation-dependent)
• templateBody (string) — CloudFormation template body (Validate Template only)

Outputs (depend on the selected operation):

• stacks (json) — Stack list returned by Describe Stacks
• resources (json) — Stack resources returned by List Stack Resources
• events (json) — Stack event history returned by Describe Stack Events
• stackDriftDetectionId (string) — Drift detection job ID returned by Detect Stack Drift
• templateBody (string) — Template body (JSON or YAML) returned by Get Template
• stagesAvailable (json) — Available template stages returned by Get Template
• description (string) — Template description returned by Validate Template
• parameters (json) — Template parameters returned by Validate Template
• capabilities (json) — Required IAM/transform capabilities returned by Validate Template
• template (json) — Legacy alias for template output

Tools

CloudFormation Describe Stacks (cloudformation_describe_stacks) — Lists and describes CloudFormation stacks. Pass an optional stackName to scope results to a single stack; omit it to return all stacks in the region. Returns stacks (array).

CloudFormation List Stack Resources (cloudformation_list_stack_resources) — Lists all resources belonging to the given stack. Requires stackName. Returns resources (array).

CloudFormation Describe Stack Events (cloudformation_describe_stack_events) — Retrieves the event history for a stack, useful for auditing or diagnosing a failed deployment. Requires stackName; accepts an optional limit (default 50). Returns events (array).

CloudFormation Detect Stack Drift (cloudformation_detect_stack_drift) — Initiates an asynchronous drift-detection job on the stack. Requires stackName. Returns stackDriftDetectionId (string) that can be used to poll for drift results.

CloudFormation Get Template (cloudformation_get_template) — Retrieves the deployed template body for a stack. Requires stackName. Returns templateBody (string, JSON or YAML) and stagesAvailable (array of available template stages).

CloudFormation Validate Template (cloudformation_validate_template) — Validates a CloudFormation template for syntax and structural correctness. Requires templateBody. Returns description (string), parameters (array), and capabilities (array of required IAM/transform capabilities).

YAML Example

cloudformation_1:
  type: cloudformation
  name: "CloudFormation"
  inputs:
    operation: "cloudformation_describe_stacks"
    awsRegion: "us-east-1"
    awsAccessKeyId: "{{AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID}}"
    awsSecretAccessKey: "{{AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY}}"
    stackName: "my-stack"
  connections:
    outgoing:
      - target: next-block-id