AWS CDK Development
An opinionated guide for writing, validating, and deploying AWS infrastructure with the CDK.
Dev & CodingIntermediate★ 357⑂ 40AI score 9/10Last updated: Jun 15, 2026
What it does
- Enforces core CDK principles when authoring stacks and constructs — most notably never hardcoding resource names so patterns stay reusable and stacks deploy in parallel.
- Steers Lambda work toward the right construct per runtime (
NodejsFunction,PythonFunction) so bundling and dependencies are handled automatically. - Provides a three-layer pre-deployment validation strategy: IDE feedback →
cdk synthwith cdk-nag Aspects → build, tests, andscripts/validate-stack.sh. - Follows an 8-step workflow: design → verify AWS services via MCP → implement → validate → synth → review → deploy → verify.
- Uses AWS Documentation MCP and
awslabs.aws-iac-mcp-serverto confirm regional availability, quotas, and current API specs.
Who it's for
- Backend and platform engineers building AWS infrastructure in TypeScript or Python CDK
- Teams standardizing IaC/CloudFormation review quality
- DevOps engineers rolling cdk-nag security checks into CI
Examples
- "Build a CDK stack with API Gateway, Lambda, and DynamoDB" → picks recommended constructs, omits explicit names, runs synth.
- "Validate this stack before I deploy" → installs cdk-nag, wires Aspects, runs
cdk synth, documents anyNagSuppressionsreason. - "Does Lambda support Python 3.13? Is DynamoDB in eu-south-2?" → verifies via AWS docs MCP before writing code.
· · · Install guide · · ·
Try it now, no install
Paste this into Claude to use the skill without installing anything.
Read the instructions in this file and follow them to help me: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zxkane/aws-skills/HEAD/plugins/aws-iac/skills/aws-cdk-development/SKILL.md What I want: (describe your task here)
If Claude can't open the link, open it yourself and paste the contents instead.
↓ If it works for you, download the ZIP below and install it. Then it runs on its own — no pasting each time.
Install in the Claude app (no terminal)
- Download the ZIP with the button below.
- In Claude, open Settings → Capabilities and turn on 'Code execution and file creation'. (one time)
- Go to Customize → Skills → + → 'Upload a skill' and upload the ZIP.
Install in Claude Code
Let Claude do it — paste this into Claude Code
Install the skill I found on Claude Skill Mart. Copy the plugins/aws-iac/skills/aws-cdk-development folder from the GitHub repo zxkane/aws-skills into my ~/.claude/skills/aws-cdk-development/. When it's done, tell me in one line what this skill can do.
Install with a command instead
git clone https://github.com/zxkane/aws-skills.git /tmp/aws-skills && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r /tmp/aws-skills/plugins/aws-iac/skills/aws-cdk-development ~/.claude/skills/⚠ This is a third-party skill. Check the source repository before installing.
- Open a terminal and clone the repo:
git clone https://github.com/zxkane/aws-skills.git - Create the skills directory:
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills - Copy the skill:
cp -r aws-skills/plugins/aws-iac/skills/aws-cdk-development ~/.claude/skills/ - (Recommended) Register the MCP server:
claude mcp add aws-iac uvx awslabs.aws-iac-mcp-server@latest - Configure AWS credentials and confirm with
aws sts get-caller-identity. - Make sure Node.js and the CDK CLI are available:
npx cdk --version - Restart Claude Code and try a prompt like "create a CDK stack" to confirm the skill triggers.
View source on GitHub ↗License: MIT