Use DescribeStacks with an AWS SDK or CLI

The following code examples show how to use DescribeStacks.

CLI

AWS CLI

To describe AWS CloudFormation stacks

The following describe-stacks command shows summary information for the myteststack stack:

aws cloudformation describe-stacks --stack-name myteststack

Output:

{
    "Stacks":  [
        {
            "StackId": "arn:aws:cloudformation:us-east-1:123456789012:stack/myteststack/466df9e0-0dff-08e3-8e2f-5088487c4896",
            "Description": "AWS CloudFormation Sample Template S3_Bucket: Sample template showing how to create a publicly accessible S3 bucket. **WARNING** This template creates an S3 bucket. You will be billed for the AWS resources used if you create a stack from this template.",
            "Tags": [],
            "Outputs": [
                {
                    "Description": "Name of S3 bucket to hold website content",
                    "OutputKey": "BucketName",
                    "OutputValue": "myteststack-s3bucket-jssofi1zie2w"
                }
            ],
            "StackStatusReason": null,
            "CreationTime": "2013-08-23T01:02:15.422Z",
            "Capabilities": [],
            "StackName": "myteststack",
            "StackStatus": "CREATE_COMPLETE",
            "DisableRollback": false
        }
    ]
}

For more information, see Stacks in the AWS CloudFormation User Guide.

• For API details, see DescribeStacks in AWS CLI Command Reference.

Go

SDK for Go V2

Note

There's more on GitHub. Find the complete example and learn how to set up and run in the AWS Code Examples Repository.

// StackOutputs defines a map of outputs from a specific stack.
type StackOutputs map[string]string

type CloudFormationActions struct {
	CfnClient *cloudformation.Client
}

// GetOutputs gets the outputs from a CloudFormation stack and puts them into a structured format.
func (actor CloudFormationActions) GetOutputs(stackName string) StackOutputs {
	output, err := actor.CfnClient.DescribeStacks(context.TODO(), &cloudformation.DescribeStacksInput{
		StackName: aws.String(stackName),
	})
	if err != nil || len(output.Stacks) == 0 {
		log.Panicf("Couldn't find a CloudFormation stack named %v. Here's why: %v\n", stackName, err)
	}
	stackOutputs := StackOutputs{}
	for _, out := range output.Stacks[0].Outputs {
		stackOutputs[*out.OutputKey] = *out.OutputValue
	}
	return stackOutputs
}

• For API details, see DescribeStacks in AWS SDK for Go API Reference.

PowerShell

Tools for PowerShell

Example 1: Returns a collection of Stack instances describing all of the user's stacks.

Get-CFNStack

Example 2: Returns a Stack instance describing the specified stack

Get-CFNStack -StackName "myStack"

Example 3: Returns a collection of Stack instances describing all of the user's stacks using manual paging. The starting token for the next page is retrieved after every call with $null indicating no more details remain to be retrieved.

$nextToken = $null
do {
    Get-CFNStack -NextToken $nextToken
    $nextToken = $AWSHistory.LastServiceResponse.NextToken
} while ($nextToken -ne $null)

• For API details, see DescribeStacks in AWS Tools for PowerShell Cmdlet Reference.