# AWS CDK CLI

## About this Install Guide

| Reading time: | 15 min |
|---------------|--------|
| Last updated: | 23 Jun 2026 |

| Author:          | Anupras Mohapatra, Arm |
|------------------|------------------------|
| Official docs:   | [View](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cdk/v2/guide/home.html) |
| Tags:            | AWS CDK CLI |

This guide shows you how to install and use the tool with the most common configuration. For advanced options and complete reference information, see the official documentation. Some install guides also include optional next steps to help you explore related workflows or integrations.

The AWS Cloud Development Kit (AWS CDK) is an open-source infrastructure as code (IaC) software development framework. You can use the AWS CDK to define and deploy applications on Arm-based cloud infrastructure powered by AWS Graviton.

You can write applications in a supported programming language of your choice. Then, you can use the AWS CDK CLI to translate the code into an AWS CloudFormation template and deploy the application.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to install the CDK CLI and verify that the CLI installation was successful.

## Before you begin

Verify that you have the AWS CLI installed:

```bash
aws --version
```

The output is similar to:

```bash
__output__ aws-cli/2.34.56 Python/3.14.5 Darwin/25.5.0 exe/arm64
```

For instructions to set up AWS credentials and install the AWS CLI, see the [AWS Credentials](https://learn.arm.com/install-guides/aws_access_keys/) and [AWS CLI](https://learn.arm.com/install-guides/aws-cli/) install guides.

Make sure you have Node.js 22 or later installed:

```bash
node --version
```

The output is similar to:

```bash
__output__ v26.2.0
```

If you don’t have Node.js installed, or if the installed version is earlier than Node.js 22, download a suitable version from the [Node.js website](https://nodejs.org/en/download).

You’ll also need to install prerequisites specific to the programming languages that you want to use. For more information, see [Install Node.js and programming language prerequisites](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cdk/v2/guide/prerequisites.html#prerequisites-node) in the AWS CDK documentation.

## Install the AWS CDK CLI

Use `npm` to install the AWS CDK CLI:

```bash
npm install -g aws-cdk
```

## Verify the installation

After installing the AWS CDK CLI, check the version of the CLI:

```bash
cdk --version
```

The output is similar to:

```bash
__output__ 2.1125.0 (build 71fd29e)
```

## Next steps

You’ve now installed the AWS CDK CLI and verified that the installation was successful.

Next, you can use the AWS CDK to create and deploy applications on Arm-based compute powered by AWS Graviton. To learn how you can use the AWS CDK and Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS) to run containers on Arm-based compute, see [Deploy containers on Arm-based compute using Amazon ECS and the AWS CDK](https://learn.arm.com/learning-paths/servers-and-cloud-computing/aws-cdk/).