---
id: aws-cdk-core
version: "1.204.0"
license: Apache-2.0
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# aws-cdk.core — AWS Cloud Development Kit Core Library

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 194.4K/mo

## What it is and what it does

AWS CDK Core is the foundational library for AWS Cloud Development Kit v1, providing the base classes (Stack, Stage, Construct) and synthesis infrastructure needed to define AWS infrastructure in Python code. It translates your Python constructs into CloudFormation templates for deployment. The library handles stack organization, nested stacks, cross-stack resource references, and asset management through configurable synthesizers.

This package is the entry point for building CDK applications in v1, but it is no longer maintained. AWS announced end-of-support on 2023-06-01, and the project recommends migration to AWS CDK v2. While the package remains functional and has no known security vulnerabilities, new projects should use v2 instead, and existing v1 users should plan upgrades.

Use it for:

- Maintaining or extending existing AWS CDK v1 applications that have not yet migrated to v2.
- Defining multi-stack AWS infrastructure with shared resources and cross-stack references.
- Creating nested CloudFormation stacks programmatically without writing raw YAML or JSON templates.
- Organizing large infrastructure deployments across multiple logical stages (dev, staging, prod).

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

Provides the core construct classes and stack management framework for AWS CDK v1, enabling infrastructure-as-code definition in Python for AWS CloudFormation deployments.

No, unless you are maintaining an existing AWS CDK v1 codebase. The package reached end-of-support on 2023-06-01 and receives no updates. New projects should use AWS CDK v2. Existing v1 users should plan migration; while the package is stable and has no known vulnerabilities, staying on an unsupported version introduces long-term maintenance risk.

## Install

pip install aws-cdk-core
uv add aws-cdk-core
poetry add aws-cdk-core

## Installing aws-cdk.core

Before you install: Low install friction with 7 runtime dependencies. Package is marked inactive (Development Status 7) and reached end-of-support on 2023-06-01; users are advised to migrate to AWS CDK v2. Latest release was 2023-06-19.

License in practice: Licensed under Apache-2.0 (permissive), allowing commercial use, modification, and distribution with minimal restrictions.

Quickstart:

pip install aws-cdk.core

from aws_cdk import core

class MyStack(core.Stack):
    def __init__(self, scope: core.Construct, id: str, **kwargs):
        super().__init__(scope, id, **kwargs)
        # Define constructs here

app = core.App()
MyStack(app, "MyStack")
app.synth()

Requires Python 3.7 or later; v1 is end-of-support as of 2023-06-01 and no longer receives updates.

Verify before relying:

- Whether existing v1 code can run without modification on current AWS account bootstrapping.
- Performance or compatibility impact of running v1 against modern AWS API versions.
- Availability of migration tooling or automated path from v1 to v2.

## Package facts

- License: Apache-2.0 (permissive)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 194.4K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

AWS CDK core constructs, infrastructure as code AWS, CloudFormation stack management, AWS CDK v1 library, cloud infrastructure Python, AWS resource definitions, CDK stack synthesis, infrastructure-as-code, end-of-life, aws-deprecated

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