(core): allow synthesizing a CFN template as an asset (without necessarily deploying it)

[wulfmann]

I would like to be able to synthesize and publish cloudformation stack assets without actually creating (deploying) the stack.

Use Case

When using features like Modules or StackSets, you need to provide an s3 url for the template you want to use.

In order to make these features simpler to use with CDK, i'd like the add a cli/configuration/stack option to not actually create the stack on deployment. There may be a simpler way to do this, but i'd like the following experience:

• I create a stack (stack1) that contains my module/stackset template.
• I create another stack (stack2) that accepts stack1 as a parameter. I can then use this stack to build the asset / get other properties i may need for the stackset/module.
• I run the cdk deploy command and both stack1 and stack2 are synthesized / published to s3, but only stack2 is created/updated.

Proposed Solution

Ideas:

• Property on the core.Stack class: deploy: false.

Other

Current workaround:

Maintain 2 separate core.App files. One that is "deployed" and one that is not. The "deployed" app stacks expect that app1 is synthesized first, and then it uses the filesystem to fetch the corresponding templates.

• 👋 I may be able to implement this feature request
• ⚠️ This feature might incur a breaking change

---

This is a 🚀 Feature Request

[wulfmann]

I poked around a little bit to check if this is a duplicate, but didn't notice anything immediately. Feel free to close if it is.

[rix0rrr]

This is an interesting request. I feel there's probably a generalization to be made between Stack, NestedStack and what you're asking for. Something like a CfnTemplate or something.

For example, passing a Stack to a Module doesn't feel quite right.

Seems like a useful feature for the use cases you indicated.

[rix0rrr]

Probably also related to #11896

[wulfmann]

Probably also related to #11896

Yea 100% this is a use-case for my original issue. Would love to see this get traction!

[github-actions]

This issue has not received any attention in 1 year. If you want to keep this issue open, please leave a comment below and auto-close will be canceled.

[fitzoh]

If you want to keep this issue open, please leave a comment below

Yes please, I want this for stack sets specifically

[comcalvi]

Closing this as a duplicate of #11896, which is linked to the StackSets L2 RFC.

[github-actions]

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