Command Line Reference

Crustomize is invoked as:

crustomize [command] <path> [options]

path

Path to a folder containing a crustomize.yml file and, if use, YAML overlays.

option

Crustomize supports the following options:

    --render, -r    Template engine, default is "handlebars"
    --output, -o    Output directory
    --profile, -p   AWS CLI profile, default is "default"
    --repo, -R      Used with 'generate' command to specify the repository
    --config, -c    Config file with flag defaults
    --lint, -l      Lint the output file (requires cfn-lint)
    --env, -e       Environment file
    --helpers, -H   Path(s) to colon separated custom helpers file or folder
    --help, -h      Show help
    --version, -v   Show version
    --ci, -i        CI/CD mode

To disable spinners, use the --ci/-i switch. The --profile/-p and --render/-r switches can be overridden in a crustomize.yml file if needed.

All switches can be defined in a .crustomizerc file in YAML format. If you run crustomize in the same folder, it will pick up the switches from there, unless you provide them specifically in the terminal.

command

apply

Applies overlays to base files and generates a CloudFormation template. If using params.yml file, it also generates a params.json file. In that case you must use the --output/-o switch.

Examples:

# Output to standard out
crustomize apply path/to/overlay/folder
# Redirect standard out to a file
crustomize apply path/to/overlay/folder > template.yml
# Write output to a file(s) in out_folder
crustomize apply path/to/overlay/folder --output out_folder
# Lint generated template
crustomize apply path/to/overlay --lint

deploy

Generates a template or a template and a params.json file (if the crustomize.yml file contains a params: property) to an output folder. If you don’t provide your own output folder with the --output/-o switch, a temporary folder is created at .crustomize_deploy and then cleaned up, once deployment is complete. If you need to persist the generated templates, you must provide your own --output folder.

Examples:

# Auto output
crustomize deploy path/to/overlay
# Specific output
crustomize deploy path/to/overlay -o folder

create-change-set

Creates a CloudFormation change-set on an existing stack. Once the change-set has been created, it will output a JSON description of the changes to standard output. See deploy above for switches and other behaviour.

Examples:

# Auto output
crustomize create-change-set path/to/overlay
# Specific output
crustomize create-change-set path/to/overlay -o folder

execute-change-set

Executes an already created change-set. See deploy above for switches and other behaviour.

Examples:

# Auto output
crustomize execute-change-set path/to/overlay
# Specific output
crustomize execute-change-set path/to/overlay -o folder

delete-change-set

Deletes an already created change-set. See deploy above for switches and other behaviour.

Examples:

# Auto output
crustomize delete-change-set path/to/overlay
# Specific output
crustomize delete-change-set path/to/overlay -o folder

validate

Validates a generated template and params.json if one is generated as well.

Examples:

# Auto output
crustomize validate path/to/overlay
# Specific output
crustomize validate path/to/overlay -o folder
# With linting
crustomize validate path/to/overlay --lint

generate

Generates a CloudFormation template from a custom manifest file.

A custom manifest is a YAML file with a type property that points to a Crustomize overlay in a “repository”. Thus, the type property is simply a relative path inside a folder that has been “designated” as a repository. When executed, Crustomize will locate the overlay and pre-render it using the content of the custom manifest and then perform a final render of the overlay (i.e. apply the overlay).

This can be useful for defining minimal and standardized deployments. For example type: lambda/v1 could deploy a lambda function, type: db/postgres a postgres instance in AWS RDS.

Examples:

crustomize generate path/to/manifest.yml -r path/to/repo/folder
# Repo on S3
crustomize generate path/to/manifest.yml -r s3://bucket/repo