Project Structure

Understand how the starter kit organizes templates, parameters, automation scripts, and CI/CD.

Overview

The repository keeps CloudFormation assets, environment configuration, and automation in predictable places so helper scripts can discover them automatically.

Directory structure

.
├── .cfnlintrc                              # cfn-lint configuration
├── .checkov.yml                            # Checkov security config
├── .github/
│   ├── pull-request-template.md
│   └── workflows/
│       ├── cfn-lint-scan.yml               # Template linting
│       ├── checkov-scan.yml                # Security scanning
│       └── cloudformation-deploy-test.yml  # Environment deploy
├── parameters/
│   └── test/
│       └── oidc-provider.yml               # Generated by provision-repo.sh
├── requirements.txt
├── scripts/
│   ├── provision-repo.sh
│   ├── deploy-templates.sh
│   └── validate-templates.sh
└── templates/
    └── oidc-provider.yml

Note: Additional environment folders (e.g., parameters/staging/, parameters/production/) are created when you run provision-repo.sh for each environment.

Key directories

templates/

Stores CloudFormation templates to deploy. Each file can be YAML or JSON. The deploy script discovers every template in this folder and sends it to Rain.

TemplatePurpose
oidc-provider.ymlGitHub Actions OIDC provider and IAM role

parameters/

Contains parameter files for different environments. Each subdirectory corresponds to an environment.

Important: Parameter filenames must match template names. templates/oidc-provider.yml pairs with parameters/test/oidc-provider.yml.

scripts/

Shell scripts for managing templates:

ScriptPurpose
provision-repo.shGenerate parameter and workflow files for an environment
deploy-templates.shDeploy templates using Rain
validate-templates.shValidate templates with cfn-lint and Checkov

.github/workflows/

CI/CD workflows:

WorkflowPurpose
cfn-lint-scan.ymlValidate template syntax and best practices
checkov-scan.ymlSecurity and compliance scanning
cloudformation-deploy-<env>.ymlDeploy to specific environment

Configuration files

.cfnlintrc

cfn-lint configuration for template validation:

templates:
  - templates/*.yml
ignore_templates:
  - codebuild.yaml

.checkov.yml

Checkov configuration for security scanning:

framework:
  - cloudformation
directory:
  - templates
skip-check:
  - CKV_AWS_7
  # Additional skips...

See Linting and Code Analysis for full configuration details.

Next steps

← ConfigurationEnvironments →