AWS CloudFormation Designer interface overview
Designer
Note
Designer can't show or modify running resources in your stacks; use it only for creating, modifying, and saving templates.
The following figure illustrates the Designer panes and its main components.
Designer panes and components

- 1. Toolbar
-
The toolbar provides quick access to commands for common actions, such as opening and saving templates, undoing or redoing changes, creating a stack, and validating your template. You can also download the diagram as an image, get help, or refresh the diagram in the canvas pane.
- 2. Resource types pane
-
The Resource types pane lists all the template resources that you can add to your template, categorized by their AWS service name. You add resources by dragging them from the Resource types pane to the canvas. Most of the supported resources are listed in the AWS resource and property types reference. The Resource types pane doesn't list connecting resources, such as the
AWS::EC2::SubnetRouteTableAssociation
resource. You create these resources when you connect the relevant resources, such as when you connect a route table to a subnet. For more information, see Canvas pane.Note
Designer can display only AWS CloudFormation-supported resource types. It cannot display other entities, such as Availability Zones (AZs) or the resources of a nested stack.
- 3. Canvas pane
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The canvas pane displays your template resources as a diagram. You use it to add or remove resources, create relationships between resources, and arrange their layout. The changes that you make in the canvas automatically modify the template's JSON or YAML. For more information, see Canvas pane.
- 4. Fit to window button
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A button that resizes the canvas pane to fit your template's diagram.
- 5. Full screen and Split screen buttons
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Buttons to select different views of Designer. You can select a full-screen view of the canvas, a full-screen view of the Integrated JSON and YAML editor, or a split-screen view of the canvas and editor.
- 6. Integrated JSON and YAML editor pane
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In the integrated editor, you specify the details of your template, such as resource properties or template parameters. When you select an item in the canvas, Designer highlights the related JSON or YAML in the editor. After editing the JSON or YAML, you must refresh the canvas (choose
) to update the diagram. You can convert a valid template between JSON and YAML by selecting the appropriate radio button in Choose template language. Designer can only convert valid YAML or valid JSON templates. If the conversion succeeds, the Messages pane displays a message like: Successfully converted the template to YAML. AWS CloudFormation Designer doesn't preserve formatting when converting a template.
Important
We recommend that you do not add
#
YAML comments to your templates in Designer. If your YAML template has#
comments, Designer doesn't preserve those comments when editing the YAML or converting to JSON. If you edit or modify your template in Designer (for example, if you drag a resource on the canvas), your comments are lost.Once you choose a template language, any new resources you drag onto the canvas will be created in the language you have selected. To change back to another language, make sure your template is valid and then select YAML or JSON where it says Choose template language.
- 7. Messages pane
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When you convert a template from JSON to YAML or vice-versa, the Messages pane displays a success or failure message. When you open, validate, or attempt to create a stack with an invalid template, the Messages pane displays validation errors.