Introduction

cdkd is a drop-in CDK CLI for existing CDK apps — up to 15x faster deploys via direct AWS SDK calls instead of CloudFormation.

• Drop-in CDK compatible: your existing CDK app code runs as-is; just replace cdk deploy with cdkd deploy.
• Up to 15x faster deploys: direct SDK calls, aggressive parallelization, and --no-wait to skip slow stabilization waits; faster than Terraform and CloudFormation Express mode too (see Benchmarks).

cdkd complements the AWS CDK CLI rather than replacing it. Use cdkd in dev/test for rapid iteration; use the AWS CDK CLI in production for full CloudFormation tooling. Install cdkd alongside an existing cdk deploy workflow: no migration needed. You can also import existing stacks into cdkd or export back to CloudFormation anytime.

A natural fit for AI-driven development. AI coding agents iterate in tight spin-up / tear-down loops — and cdkd keeps each turn short, with fast deploys and an equally fast cdkd destroy that deletes via direct SDK calls instead of polling a CloudFormation stack-delete. See Using cdkd with AI coding agents.

Local execution from your deployed stack. cdkd local runs your functions, APIs, and ECS tasks on your machine. It can resolve env vars, secrets, and resource references from your real deployed stack: no hand-written .env files, no hand-seeded test data (see Local execution).

IMPORTANT: cdkd is for dev/test workflows only — early in development, not yet production-ready.

Next steps

• Getting Started — install cdkd and run your first deploy
• Benchmarks — vs CloudFormation, Express mode, and Terraform
• Core Concepts — how cdkd works under the hood