AWS CloudFormation
A collection of APIs provided by AWS for infrastructure as code provisioning and management of AWS and third-party resources using CloudFormation templates and the Cloud Control API.
Reference-quality API operations across every facet — a rich contract, published governance, transparent operations, and machine-readable commercial terms.
API Evangelist profiles AWS CloudFormation the way a machine reads it — 158 machine-readable artifacts across 13 APIs, pulled from the provider's own public surface and indexed so a developer, an analyst, or an AI agent can evaluate it against every other provider on the network.
Every provider in the network is reduced to the same set of machine-readable artifacts — OpenAPI contracts, event specifications, GraphQL schemas, runnable collections, pricing and rate-limit signals, security posture, OAuth scopes, and the agent surfaces (MCP servers and skills) that let software drive the API on its own. We profile them because the interface is the part of a company you can actually inspect: it is a truer signal of what a provider does than any marketing page. From those artifacts we compute the Kin Score — AWS CloudFormation scores 75.3/100 (exemplar), with a separate agent-readiness read of 60/100 (agent ready). The full breakdown is below, followed by every artifact we hold — each card links through to its machine-readable definition on apis.io.
Kin Score
This is the API Evangelist rating — a single, repeatable read computed from the artifacts on this page. Green fill is points earned; the red track is points possible, so every bar shows earned-versus-possible at a glance.
Kin Score
How this is scored →scored 2026-07-27 · rubric v0.5
How we profile AWS CloudFormation
Each block below is one kind of artifact we hold for AWS CloudFormation. For each we say what it is and why it earns a place in the profile, then list every one we've indexed — capped at two rows, scroll within the panel for the rest.
APIs 13
Each API is captured as its own OpenAPI definition — every operation, parameter, and response. This is the single most useful machine-readable description of what an API does, and it's what lets us score, lint, mock, and generate against it without asking the provider for anything.
Individual APIs this provider publishes, each with its own machine-readable definition.
AWS CloudFormation Change Sets API
Operations for creating and managing change sets to preview stack changes.
AWS CloudFormation Exports API
Operations for listing stack exports and imports.
AWS CloudFormation Registry API
Operations for managing extension types in the CloudFormation Registry.
AWS CloudFormation Request Status API
Operations for tracking the status of asynchronous resource operations and cancelling in-progress requests.
AWS CloudFormation Resources API
CRUDL operations for creating, reading, updating, deleting, and listing cloud resources through a uniform interface.
AWS CloudFormation Stack Drift API
Operations for detecting and describing configuration drift.
AWS CloudFormation Stack Events API
Operations for retrieving stack-related events.
AWS CloudFormation Stack Instances API
Operations for managing stack instances within a stack set.
AWS CloudFormation Stack Policies API
Operations for getting and setting stack policies.
AWS CloudFormation Stack Resources API
Operations for describing resources within a stack.
AWS CloudFormation Stack Sets API
Operations for managing stack sets across multiple accounts and regions.
AWS CloudFormation Stacks API
Operations for creating, updating, deleting, and describing CloudFormation stacks.
AWS CloudFormation Templates API
Operations for retrieving, validating, and summarizing templates.
Scroll within the panel for all 13 ·
Postman Collections 2
A runnable collection turns the contract into something a developer can execute in seconds. We profile them because the fastest way to trust an API is to make a real call against it.
Ready-to-run Postman collections for exercising this provider's APIs.
AWS Cloud Control API
POSTMANAWS CloudFormation API
POSTMANOpen Collections 2
Open, tool-agnostic collections carry the same runnable value as Postman without locking you to one client — the portable, forkable form of the same exercise.
Open, tool-agnostic API collections (OpenAPI-derived and Bruno).
AWS Cloud Control API
OPEN COLLECTIONAWS CloudFormation API
OPEN COLLECTIONArazzo Workflows 9
Real integrations are rarely a single call. Arazzo describes the multi-step sequences — auth, then create, then confirm — so both a human and an agent can follow the choreography, not just the endpoints.
Multi-step API workflows described with the Arazzo specification.
CloudFormation Audit Cross-Stack Exports
List the account's stack exports, then list the stacks that import a named export.
ARAZZOCloudFormation Create and Execute a Change Set
Create a change set, poll until CREATE_COMPLETE, execute it, then wait for the stack update to finish.
ARAZZOCloudFormation Deploy a Stack Set
Create a stack set, roll out an instance to an account and region, then poll the instance until CURRENT.
ARAZZOCloudFormation Detect Stack Drift
Start drift detection, poll until detection completes, then list the drifted resources.
ARAZZOCloudFormation Inspect a Stack Resource
Describe a single stack resource, then run targeted drift detection against just that resource.
ARAZZOCloudFormation Provision a Stack
Validate a template, create a stack, poll until CREATE_COMPLETE, then list its resources.
ARAZZOCloudFormation Review and Clean Up a Change Set
Create a change set, poll until it is computed, then branch — delete it when it contains no changes, otherwise keep it for review.
ARAZZOCloudFormation Safe Stack Update
Summarize a template, update the stack, poll until UPDATE_COMPLETE, then pull the stack events.
ARAZZOCloudFormation Tear Down a Stack
Disable termination protection, delete the stack, then poll until DELETE_COMPLETE.
ARAZZOScroll within the panel for all 9 ·
MCP Servers 1
Model Context Protocol servers expose these APIs directly to AI agents. We profile them because agent-native access is the fastest-growing way this provider's capabilities actually get used.
Model Context Protocol servers that expose these APIs to AI agents.
MCP Server
MCP SERVERPricing Plans 1
Pricing is part of the interface. Machine-readable plans tell you what a tier costs and includes before you commit — one of the six things the Kin Score reads for commercial clarity.
Published pricing tiers and plan structures.
Rate Limits 1
Rate limits are the difference between a demo that works and a production integration that doesn't fall over. Publishing them is an operational-transparency signal — and a hard requirement for any agent that plans its own throughput.
Documented rate limits and quota policies.
Cloudformation Rate Limits
RATE LIMITSFinOps 1
Cost, billing, and metering signals let a buyer model the financial operations of an API before it's live. We profile them for the same reason we profile pricing: the money is part of the contract.
Cost, billing, and metering signals for API financial operations.
Cloudformation Finops
FINOPSFeatures 6
The notable capabilities this provider advertises, captured as structured features so they can be searched and compared instead of read one landing page at a time.
Notable capabilities this provider offers.
Infrastructure As Code
Define and provision AWS infrastructure using declarative JSON/YAML templates
Stack Management
Create, update, and delete collections of AWS resources as a single unit
Change Sets
Preview changes before applying them to running stacks
Drift Detection
Detect when stack resources have been modified outside of CloudFormation
Stack Sets
Deploy stacks across multiple accounts and regions simultaneously
Cloud Control CRUDL
Uniform interface for managing any resource in the CloudFormation Registry
Semantic Vocabularies 3
JSON-LD contexts give the data shared meaning across APIs. We profile them because semantics are what let a machine reconcile 'customer' here with 'customer' somewhere else.
JSON-LD contexts and semantic vocabularies used across these APIs.
Spectral Rules 2
Governance rulesets we run against this provider's specs — the automated checks behind parts of the score. Profiling them makes the quality bar explicit and re-runnable, not a matter of opinion.
AWS CloudFormation API Rules
SPECTRALAWS CloudFormation API Rules
SPECTRALJSON Schema 38
Standalone JSON Schema definitions describe the data models behind the API. We profile them so the shapes are validatable on their own — useful long after a single request is forgotten.
Standalone JSON Schema definitions for this provider's data models.
AWS CloudFormation Change Set
JSON SCHEMAErrorResponse
JSON SCHEMAHookProgressEvent
JSON SCHEMAProgressEvent
JSON SCHEMAResourceDescription
JSON SCHEMAChange
JSON SCHEMAChangeSetDetail
JSON SCHEMAChangeSetSummary
JSON SCHEMAErrorResponse
JSON SCHEMAExport
JSON SCHEMAModuleInfo
JSON SCHEMAOutput
JSON SCHEMAParameterDeclaration
JSON SCHEMAParameter
JSON SCHEMAPropertyDifference
JSON SCHEMAResourceChangeDetail
JSON SCHEMAResourceChange
JSON SCHEMARollbackConfiguration
JSON SCHEMARollbackTrigger
JSON SCHEMAStackDriftInformation
JSON SCHEMAStackEvent
JSON SCHEMAStackInstance
JSON SCHEMAStackInstanceSummary
JSON SCHEMAStackResourceDriftInformation
JSON SCHEMAStackResourceDrift
JSON SCHEMAStackResource
JSON SCHEMAStackResourceSummary
JSON SCHEMAStack
JSON SCHEMAStackSetOperationPreferences
JSON SCHEMAStackSet
JSON SCHEMAStackSetSummary
JSON SCHEMAStackStatus
JSON SCHEMAStackSummary
JSON SCHEMATag
JSON SCHEMATypeSummary
JSON SCHEMAAWS CloudFormation Stack Resource
JSON SCHEMAAWS CloudFormation Stack
JSON SCHEMAAWS CloudFormation Template
JSON SCHEMAScroll within the panel for all 38 ·
JSON Structure 34
JSON Structure captures the data shapes in a form built for tooling — a complement to JSON Schema that keeps the model machine-legible.
JSON Structure definitions describing this provider's data shapes.
Cloud Control Error Response Structure
JSON STRUCTURECloud Control Hook Progress Event Structure
JSON STRUCTURECloud Control Progress Event Structure
JSON STRUCTURECloud Control Resource Description Structure
JSON STRUCTURECloudformation Change Set Detail Structure
JSON STRUCTURECloudformation Change Set Summary Structure
JSON STRUCTURECloudformation Change Structure
JSON STRUCTURECloudformation Error Response Structure
JSON STRUCTURECloudformation Export Structure
JSON STRUCTURECloudformation Module Info Structure
JSON STRUCTURECloudformation Output Structure
JSON STRUCTURECloudformation Parameter Declaration Structure
JSON STRUCTURECloudformation Parameter Structure
JSON STRUCTURECloudformation Property Difference Structure
JSON STRUCTURECloudformation Resource Change Detail Structure
JSON STRUCTURECloudformation Resource Change Structure
JSON STRUCTURECloudformation Rollback Configuration Structure
JSON STRUCTURECloudformation Rollback Trigger Structure
JSON STRUCTURECloudformation Stack Drift Information Structure
JSON STRUCTURECloudformation Stack Event Structure
JSON STRUCTURECloudformation Stack Instance Structure
JSON STRUCTURECloudformation Stack Instance Summary Structure
JSON STRUCTURECloudformation Stack Resource Drift Structure
JSON STRUCTURECloudformation Stack Resource Structure
JSON STRUCTURECloudformation Stack Resource Summary Structure
JSON STRUCTURECloudformation Stack Set Operation Preferences Structure
JSON STRUCTURECloudformation Stack Set Structure
JSON STRUCTURECloudformation Stack Set Summary Structure
JSON STRUCTURECloudformation Stack Status Structure
JSON STRUCTURECloudformation Stack Structure
JSON STRUCTURECloudformation Stack Summary Structure
JSON STRUCTURECloudformation Tag Structure
JSON STRUCTURECloudformation Type Summary Structure
JSON STRUCTUREScroll within the panel for all 34 ·
Examples 34
Real request and response payloads are what turn a spec from abstract into obvious — and they're one of the twelve things an agent needs to call an API correctly on the first try.
Example request and response payloads for these APIs.
Cloudformation Stack Example
EXAMPLECloudformation Tag Example
EXAMPLEScroll within the panel for all 34 ·
Security Posture 4
Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals — the evidence that a provider takes security seriously enough to document it. We profile it because you can't govern what you can't see.
Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals.
Agentic Access 1
An x-agentic-access contract marks which operations are safe for an agent to run on its own and which need a human in the loop. It is the difference between an API an agent can use and one it can use safely.
Recommended x-agentic-access execution contracts for AI agents.
Use Cases 3
What developers actually build with this provider — captured so the catalogue answers 'what is this for', not just 'what does this expose'.
What developers build with this provider.
Multi-Account Deployment
Deploy consistent infrastructure across multiple AWS accounts with Stack Sets
Environment Provisioning
Spin up identical dev, staging, and production environments from templates
Compliance Auditing
Detect configuration drift and enforce infrastructure compliance
Integrations 3
Pre-built integrations with other platforms tell you where this provider already fits in a stack.
Pre-built integrations with other platforms and tools.
AWS CDK
Define cloud infrastructure using familiar programming languages that compile to CloudFormation
AWS SAM
Simplified syntax for serverless application deployment via CloudFormation
Terraform
Alternative IaC tool that can import/export CloudFormation templates
Resources
Every other property we hold for AWS CloudFormation — documentation, portals, status pages, policies, and corporate surface — grouped by the job it does, following the integrator's arc from getting started to running in production.
Get Started 4
Portal, sign-up, and the first successful call
Documentation 17
Reference material describing how the API behaves
Scroll within the panel for all 17 ·
Agent Surfaces 2
MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs
Design & Contract 14
Pagination, idempotency, versioning, errors, and events
Scroll within the panel for all 14 ·
Build 9
SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with
Scroll within the panel for all 9 ·
Access & Security 4
Authentication, authorization, and security posture
Operate 2
Status, limits, changes, and where to get help
Commercial 3
Pricing, plans, and the legal terms of use
Company 1
The organization behind the API
Other 3
Properties that don't map to a standard resource type
← All providers · Data indexed from github.com/api-evangelist/cloudformation · machine-readable index on apis.io