Amazon CodeCatalyst is no longer open to new customers. Existing customers can continue to use the service as normal. For more information, see [How to migrate from CodeCatalyst](migration.md).

# Bootstrapping an AWS CDK app with a workflow
<a name="cdk-boot-action"></a>

This section describes how to bootstrap an AWS CDK application using a CodeCatalyst workflow. To accomplish this, you must add the **AWS CDK bootstrap** action to your workflow. The **AWS CDK bootstrap** action provisions a bootstrap stack in your AWS environment using the [modern template](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cdk/v2/guide/bootstrapping.html#bootstrapping-template). If a bootstrap stack already exists, the action updates it if necessary. Having a bootstrap stack present in AWS is a prerequisite for deploying an AWS CDK app.

For more information about bootstrapping, see [Bootstrapping](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cdk/v2/guide/bootstrapping.html) in the *AWS Cloud Development Kit (AWS CDK) Developer Guide*.

**Topics**
+ [When to use the 'AWS CDK bootstrap' action](#cdk-boot-action-when-to-use)
+ [How the 'AWS CDK bootstrap' action works](#cdk-boot-action-how-it-works)
+ [CDK CLI versions used by the "AWS CDK bootstrap" action](#cdk-boot-action-cdk-version)
+ [Runtime image used by the 'AWS CDK bootstrap' action](#cdk-boot-action-runtime)
+ [Example: Bootstrapping an AWS CDK app](cdk-boot-action-example-workflow.md)
+ [Adding the 'AWS CDK bootstrap' action](cdk-boot-action-add.md)
+ ['AWS CDK bootstrap' variables](cdk-boot-action-variables.md)
+ ['AWS CDK bootstrap' action YAML](cdk-boot-action-ref.md)

## When to use the 'AWS CDK bootstrap' action
<a name="cdk-boot-action-when-to-use"></a>

Use this action if you have a workflow that deploys an AWS CDK app, and you want to deploy (and update, if needed) the bootstrap stack at the same time. In this case, you would add the **AWS CDK bootstrap** action to the same workflow as the one that deploys your AWS CDK app.

**Do not** use this action if either of the following applies:
+ You already deployed a bootstrap stack using another mechanism, and you want to keep it intact (no updates).
+ You want to use a [custom bootstrap template](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cdk/v2/guide/bootstrapping.html#bootstrapping-customizing), which is not supported with the **AWS CDK bootstrap** action.

## How the 'AWS CDK bootstrap' action works
<a name="cdk-boot-action-how-it-works"></a>

The **AWS CDK bootstrap** works as follows:

1. At runtime, if you specified version 1.0.7 or earlier of the action, the action downloads the latest CDK CLI (also called the AWS CDK Tookit) to the CodeCatalyst [build image](build-images.md).

   If you specified version 1.0.8 or later, the action comes bundled with a [specific version](cdk-dep-action.md#cdk-dep-action-cdk-version) of the CDK CLI, so no download occurs.

1. The action uses the CDK CLI to run the `cdk bootstrap` command. This command performs the bootstrapping tasks described in the [Bootstrapping](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cdk/v2/guide/bootstrapping.html) topic in the *AWS Cloud Development Kit (AWS CDK) Developer Guide*.

## CDK CLI versions used by the "AWS CDK bootstrap" action
<a name="cdk-boot-action-cdk-version"></a>

The following table shows which version of the CDK CLI is used by default by different versions of the **AWS CDK bootstrap** action.

**Note**  
You might be able to override the default. For more information, see [CdkCliVersion](cdk-boot-action-ref.md#cdk.boot.cdk.cli.version) in the ['AWS CDK bootstrap' action YAML](cdk-boot-action-ref.md).


| 'AWS CDK bootstrap' action version | AWS CDK CLI version | 
| --- | --- | 
| 1.0.0 – 1.0.7 | latest | 
| 1.0.8 or later | 2.99.1 | 

## Runtime image used by the 'AWS CDK bootstrap' action
<a name="cdk-boot-action-runtime"></a>

The following table shows the runtime environment images that CodeCatalyst uses to run different versions of the **AWS CDK bootstrap** action. The images include different sets of preinstalled tooling. For more information, see [Active images](build-images.md#build-curated-images).

**Note**  
We recommend upgrading your **AWS CDK bootstrap** action to version 2.x to take advantage of the latest tooling available on the March 2024 image. To upgrade the action, set its `Identifier` property to `aws/cdk-bootstrap@v2` in your workflow definition file. For more information, see ['AWS CDK deploy' action YAML](cdk-dep-action-ref.md). 


| 'AWS CDK bootstrap' action version | Runtime environment images | 
| --- | --- | 
| 1.x | November 2022 images | 
| 2.x | March 2024 images |