# DescribeEvents
<a name="API_DescribeEvents"></a>

Returns CloudFormation events based on flexible query criteria. Groups events by operation ID, enabling you to focus on individual stack operations during deployment.

An operation is any action performed on a stack, including stack lifecycle actions (Create, Update, Delete, Rollback), change set creation, nested stack creation, and automatic rollbacks triggered by failures. Each operation has a unique identifier (Operation ID) and represents a discrete change attempt on the stack.

Returns different types of events including:
+  **Progress events** - Status updates during stack operation execution.
+  **Validation errors** - Failures from CloudFormation Early Validations.
+  **Provisioning errors** - Resource creation and update failures.
+  **Hook invocation errors** - Failures from CloudFormation Hook during stack operations.

**Note**  
One of `ChangeSetName`, `OperationId` or `StackName` must be specified as input.

## Request Parameters
<a name="API_DescribeEvents_RequestParameters"></a>

 For information about the parameters that are common to all actions, see [Common Parameters](CommonParameters.md).

 ** ChangeSetName **   
The name or Amazon Resource Name (ARN) of the change set for which you want to retrieve events.  
Type: String  
Length Constraints: Minimum length of 1. Maximum length of 1600.  
Pattern: `[a-zA-Z][-a-zA-Z0-9]*|arn:[-a-zA-Z0-9:/]*`   
Required: No

 ** Filters **   
Filters to apply when retrieving events.  
Type: [EventFilter](API_EventFilter.md) object  
Required: No

 ** NextToken **   
The token for the next set of items to return. (You received this token from a previous call.)  
Type: String  
Length Constraints: Minimum length of 1. Maximum length of 1024.  
Required: No

 ** OperationId **   
The unique identifier of the operation for which you want to retrieve events.  
Type: String  
Required: No

 ** StackName **   
The name or unique stack ID for which you want to retrieve events. If you specified the name of a change set, specify the stack name or ID (ARN) of the change set you want to describe.  
Type: String  
Length Constraints: Minimum length of 1.  
Pattern: `([a-zA-Z][-a-zA-Z0-9]*)|(arn:\b(aws|aws-us-gov|aws-cn)\b:[-a-zA-Z0-9:/._+]*)`   
Required: No

## Response Elements
<a name="API_DescribeEvents_ResponseElements"></a>

The following elements are returned by the service.

 ** NextToken **   
If the request doesn't return all the remaining results, `NextToken` is set to a token. To retrieve the next set of results, call `DescribeEvents` again and assign that token to the request object's `NextToken` parameter. If the request returns all results, `NextToken` is set to `null`.  
Type: String  
Length Constraints: Minimum length of 1. Maximum length of 1024.

 **OperationEvents.member.N**   
A list of operation events that match the specified criteria.  
Type: Array of [OperationEvent](API_OperationEvent.md) objects

## Errors
<a name="API_DescribeEvents_Errors"></a>

For information about the errors that are common to all actions, see [Common Error Types](CommonErrors.md).

## See Also
<a name="API_DescribeEvents_SeeAlso"></a>

For more information about using this API in one of the language-specific AWS SDKs, see the following:
+  [AWS Command Line Interface V2](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/goto/cli2/cloudformation-2010-05-15/DescribeEvents) 
+  [AWS SDK for .NET V4](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/goto/DotNetSDKV4/cloudformation-2010-05-15/DescribeEvents) 
+  [AWS SDK for C\$1\$1](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/goto/SdkForCpp/cloudformation-2010-05-15/DescribeEvents) 
+  [AWS SDK for Go v2](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/goto/SdkForGoV2/cloudformation-2010-05-15/DescribeEvents) 
+  [AWS SDK for Java V2](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/goto/SdkForJavaV2/cloudformation-2010-05-15/DescribeEvents) 
+  [AWS SDK for JavaScript V3](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/goto/SdkForJavaScriptV3/cloudformation-2010-05-15/DescribeEvents) 
+  [AWS SDK for Kotlin](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/goto/SdkForKotlin/cloudformation-2010-05-15/DescribeEvents) 
+  [AWS SDK for PHP V3](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/goto/SdkForPHPV3/cloudformation-2010-05-15/DescribeEvents) 
+  [AWS SDK for Python](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/goto/boto3/cloudformation-2010-05-15/DescribeEvents) 
+  [AWS SDK for Ruby V3](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/goto/SdkForRubyV3/cloudformation-2010-05-15/DescribeEvents)