• 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). 

# Passing data to Automation using input transformers
<a name="automation-tutorial-eventbridge-input-transformers"></a>

This AWS Systems Manager Automation tutorial shows how to use the input transformer feature of Amazon EventBridge to extract the `instance-id` of an Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) instance from an instance state change event. Automation is a tool in AWS Systems Manager. We use the input transformer to pass that data to the `AWS-CreateImage` runbook target as the `InstanceId` input parameter. The rule is triggered when any instance changes to the `stopped` state.

For more information about working with input transformers, see [Tutorial: Use Input Transformer to Customize What is Passed to the Event Target](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/eventbridge/latest/userguide/eventbridge-input-transformer-tutorial.html) in the *Amazon EventBridge User Guide*.

**Before you begin**  
Verify that you added the required permissions and trust policy for EventBridge to your Systems Manager Automation service role. For more information, see [Overview of Managing Access Permissions to Your EventBridge Resources](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/eventbridge/latest/userguide/iam-access-control-identity-based-eventbridge.html) in the *Amazon EventBridge User Guide*.

**To use input transformers with Automation**

1. Open the Amazon EventBridge console at [https://console.aws.amazon.com/events/](https://console.aws.amazon.com/events/).

1. In the navigation pane, choose **Rules**.

1. Choose **Create rule**.

1. Enter a name and description for the rule.

   A rule can't have the same name as another rule in the same Region and on the same event bus.

1. For **Event bus**, choose the event bus that you want to associate with this rule. If you want this rule to respond to matching events that come from your own AWS account, select **default**. When an AWS service in your account emits an event, it always goes to your account’s default event bus.

1. For **Rule type**, choose **Rule with an event pattern**.

1. Choose **Next**.

1. For **Event source**, choose **AWS events or EventBridge partner events**.

1. In the **Event pattern** section, choose **Use pattern form**.

1. For **Event source**, choose **AWS services**.

1. For **AWS service**, choose **EC2**.

1. For **Event type**, choose **EC2 Instance State-change Notification**.

1. For **Event Type Specification 1**, select **Specific state(s)**, and then choose **stopped**.

1. For **Event Type Specification 2**, select **Any instance**, or select **Specific instance Id(s)** and enter the IDs of the instances to monitor.

1. Choose **Next**.

1. For **Target types**, choose **AWS service**.

1. For **Select a target**, choose **Systems Manager Automation**.

1. For **Document**, choose **AWS-CreateImage**.

1. In the **Configure automation parameter(s)** section, choose **Input Transformer**.

1. For **Input path**, enter **\$1"instance":"\$1.detail.instance-id"\$1**.

1. For **Template**, enter **\$1"InstanceId":[<instance>]\$1**.

1. For **Execution role**, choose **Use existing role** and choose your Automation service role.

1. Choose **Next**.

1. (Optional) Enter one or more tags for the rule. For more information, see [Tagging Your Amazon EventBridge Resources](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/eventbridge/latest/userguide/eventbridge-tagging.html) in the *Amazon EventBridge User Guide*.

1. Choose **Next**.

1. Review the details of the rule and choose **Create rule**.