• The AWS Systems Manager CloudWatch Dashboard will no longer be available after April 30, 2026. Customers can continue to use Amazon CloudWatch console to view, create, and manage their Amazon CloudWatch dashboards, just as they do today. For more information, see [Amazon CloudWatch Dashboard documentation](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/monitoring/CloudWatch_Dashboards.html). # Using Application Manager to manage CloudFormation templates Application Manager, a tool in AWS Systems Manager, includes a template library and other tools to help you manage AWS CloudFormation templates. This section includes the following information. **Topics** + [ ## Working with the template library ](#application-manager-working-stacks-template-library-working) + [ ## Creating a template ](#application-manager-working-stacks-creating-template) + [ ## Editing a template ](#application-manager-working-stacks-editing-template) ## Working with the template library The Application Manager template library provides tools to help you view, create, edit, delete, and clone templates. You can also provision stacks directly from the template library. Templates are stored as Systems Manager (SSM) documents of type `CloudFormation`. By storing templates as SSM documents, you can use version controls to work with different versions of a template. You can also set permissions and share templates. After you successfully provision a stack, the stack and template are available in Application Manager and CloudFormation. **Before you begin** We recommend that you read the following topics to learn more about SSM documents before you start working with CloudFormation templates in Application Manager. + [AWS Systems Manager Documents](documents.md) + [Sharing SSM documents](documents-ssm-sharing.md) + [Best practices for shared SSM documents](documents-ssm-sharing.md#best-practices-shared) **To view the template library in Application Manager** 1. Open the AWS Systems Manager console at [https://console.aws.amazon.com/systems-manager/](https://console.aws.amazon.com/systems-manager/). 1. In the navigation pane, choose **Application Manager**. 1. Choose **CloudFormation Template Library**. ## Creating a template The following procedure describes how to create a CloudFormation template in Application Manager. When you create a template, you enter the stack details of the template in either JSON or YAML. If you're unfamiliar with JSON or YAML, you can use AWS Infrastructure Composer, a tool for visually creating and modifying templates. For more information, see [Create templates visually with Infrastructure Composer](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSCloudFormation/latest/UserGuide/infrastructure-composer-for-cloudformation.html) in the *AWS CloudFormation User Guide*. For information about the structure and syntax of a template, see [CloudFormation template sections](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSCloudFormation/latest/UserGuide/template-anatomy.html) in the *AWS CloudFormation User Guide*. You can also construct a template from multiple template snippets. Template snippets are examples that demonstrate how to write templates for a particular resource. For example, you can view snippets for Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) instances, Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) domains, CloudFormation mappings, and more. Snippets are grouped by resource. You can find general-purpose CloudFormation snippets in the [General template snippets](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSCloudFormation/latest/UserGuide/quickref-general.html) section of the *AWS CloudFormation User Guide*. ### Creating a CloudFormation template in Application Manager (console) Use the following procedure to create a CloudFormation template in Application Manager by using the AWS Management Console. **To create a CloudFormation template in Application Manager** 1. Open the AWS Systems Manager console at [https://console.aws.amazon.com/systems-manager/](https://console.aws.amazon.com/systems-manager/). 1. In the navigation pane, choose **Application Manager**. 1. Choose **CloudFormation Template Library**, and then either choose **Create template** or choose an existing template and then choose **Actions**, **Clone**. 1. For **Name**, enter a name for the template that helps you identify the resources it creates or the purpose of the stack. 1. (Optional) For **Version name**, enter a name or a number to identity the template version. 1. In the **Code editor** section, choose either **YAML** or **JSON** and then either enter or copy and paste your template code. 1. (Optional) In the **Tags** section, apply one or more tag key name/value pairs to the template. 1. (Optional) In the **Permissions** section, enter an AWS account ID and choose **Add account**. This action provides read permission to the template. The account owner can provision and clone the template, but they can't edit or delete it. 1. Choose **Create**. The template is saved in the Systems Manager (SSM) Document service. ### Creating a CloudFormation template in Application Manager (command line) After you create the content of your CloudFormation template in JSON or YAML, you can use the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) or AWS Tools for PowerShell to save the template as an SSM document. Replace each *example resource placeholder* with your own information. **Before you begin** Install and configure the AWS CLI or the AWS Tools for PowerShell, if you have not already. For information, see [Installing or updating the latest version of the AWS CLI](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/userguide/getting-started-install.html) and [Installing the AWS Tools for PowerShell](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/powershell/latest/userguide/pstools-getting-set-up.html). ------ #### [ Linux & macOS ] ``` aws ssm create-document \ --content file://path/to/template_in_json_or_yaml \ --name "a_name_for_the_template" \ --document-type "CloudFormation" \ --document-format "JSON_or_YAML" \ --tags "Key=tag-key,Value=tag-value" ``` ------ #### [ Windows ] ``` aws ssm create-document ^ --content file://C:\path\to\template_in_json_or_yaml ^ --name "a_name_for_the_template" ^ --document-type "CloudFormation" ^ --document-format "JSON_or_YAML" ^ --tags "Key=tag-key,Value=tag-value" ``` ------ #### [ PowerShell ] ``` $json = Get-Content -Path "C:\path\to\template_in_json_or_yaml | Out-String New-SSMDocument ` -Content $json ` -Name "a_name_for_the_template" ` -DocumentType "CloudFormation" ` -DocumentFormat "JSON_or_YAML" ` -Tags "Key=tag-key,Value=tag-value" ``` ------ If successful, the command returns a response similar to the following. ``` { "DocumentDescription": { "Hash": "c1d9640f15fbdba6deb41af6471d6ace0acc22f213bdd1449f03980358c2d4fb", "HashType": "Sha256", "Name": "MyTestCFTemplate", "Owner": "428427166869", "CreatedDate": "2021-06-04T09:44:18.931000-07:00", "Status": "Creating", "DocumentVersion": "1", "Description": "My test template", "PlatformTypes": [], "DocumentType": "CloudFormation", "SchemaVersion": "1.0", "LatestVersion": "1", "DefaultVersion": "1", "DocumentFormat": "YAML", "Tags": [ { "Key": "Templates", "Value": "Test" } ] } ``` ## Editing a template Use the following procedure to edit a CloudFormation template in Application Manager. Template changes are available in CloudFormation after you provision a stack that uses the updated template. **To edit a CloudFormation template in Application Manager** 1. Open the AWS Systems Manager console at [https://console.aws.amazon.com/systems-manager/](https://console.aws.amazon.com/systems-manager/). 1. In the navigation pane, choose **Application Manager**. 1. Choose **CloudFormation Template Library** 1. Choose a template, and then choose **Actions**, **Edit**. You can't change the name of a template, but you can change all other details. 1. Choose **Save**. The template is saved in the Systems Manager Document service.