What is AWS Application Composer?

AWS Application Composer allows you to visually compose modern applications on AWS. More specifically, you can use Application Composer to visualize, build, and deploy modern applications from all AWS services that are supported by AWS CloudFormation without needing to be an expert in AWS CloudFormation.

As you compose your AWS CloudFormation infrastructure, through a delightful drag-and-drop interface, Application Composer creates your infrastructure as code (IaC) templates, all while following AWS best practices. The following image shows how easy it is to drag, drop, configure, and connect resources on Application Composer's visual canvas.

Application Composer can be used from the Application Composer console, the AWS Toolkit for Visual Studio Code, and in CloudFormation console mode.

Compose your application architecture

Build with cards

Place cards on the Application Composer canvas to visualize and build your application architecture.

Connect cards together

Configure how your resources interact with each other by visually connecting them together. Specify their properties further through a curated properties panel.

Work with any AWS CloudFormation resource

Drag any AWS CloudFormation resource onto the canvas to compose your application architecture. Application Composer provides a starting IaC template that you can use to specify the properties of your resource. To learn more, see Configure Application Composer cards.

Access additional capabilities with featured AWS services

Application Composer features AWS services that are commonly used or configured together when building applications. To learn more, see Additional Features.

The following is an example of the AWS Step Functions feature, which provides an integration to launch Step Functions Workflow Studio directly within the Application Composer canvas.

Define your infrastructure as code (IaC) templates

Application Composer creates your infrastructure code

As you compose, Application Composer automatically creates your AWS CloudFormation and AWS Serverless Application Model (AWS SAM) templates, following AWS best practices. You can view and modify your templates directly from within Application Composer. Application Composer automatically syncs changes between the visual canvas and your template code.

Integrate with your existing workflows

Import existing templates and projects

Import existing AWS CloudFormation and AWS SAM templates to visualize them for better understanding and modify their design. Export the templates that you create within Application Composer and integrate them into your existing workflows towards deployment.

Ways to access Application Composer

From the Application Composer console

Access Application Composer through the Application Composer console to get started quickly. Additionally, you can use local sync mode to automatically sync and save Application Composer with your local machine.

From the AWS CloudFormation console

The Application Composer console also supports CloudFormation console mode, an improvement from CloudFormation Designer that is integrated with the AWS CloudFormation stack workflow. This new tool is now the recommended tool to visualize your CloudFormation templates.

From the Lambda console

With Application Composer, you can also import Lambda functions from the Lambda console. To learn more, see Importing functions from the Lambda console.

From the AWS Toolkit for Visual Studio Code

Access Application Composer through the Toolkit for VS Code extension to bring Application Composer into your local development environment.

Learn more

To continue learning about Application Composer, see the following resources:

• Application Composer concepts

• Visually compose and create serverless applications | Serverless Office Hours – Overview and demo of Application Composer.

Next steps

To set up Application Composer, see Getting started with Application Composer console.