dumpcft

dumpcft is a streamlined CLI tool for AWS CloudFormation template extraction. It allows you to export all CloudFormation templates from your AWS account to local files for documentation, backup, or analysis purposes.

Features

• Export CloudFormation templates from all or selected AWS regions
• Automatic file format detection (YAML or JSON)
• Consistent file naming with account ID, region, and stack name
• Supports multiple AWS profiles

Installation

Pre-Built Binaries

Download the latest release from the releases page for your platform:

• Linux (amd64, arm64)
• MacOS (amd64, arm64)
• Windows (amd64, arm64)

From Source

If you have Go 1.24+ installed:

go install github.com/scottbrown/dumpcft/cmd@latest

Usage

Basic Usage

Create an output directory and run dumpcft:

mkdir templates
dumpcft --profile PROFILE templates

This will export all CloudFormation templates from all active regions to the templates directory.

Command Line Options

Usage:
  dumpcft [flags] [output-directory]

Flags:
  -h, --help                  help for dumpcft
  -o, --output-dir string     The directory where templates are persisted to disk (default "templates")
  -p, --profile string        The AWS profile to use
  -r, --regions string        One or more comma-delimited regions to dump
  -v, --verbose               Shows debug output

Examples

Specify Output Directory

dumpcft --profile your-aws-profile -o /tmp/cfn-templates

Limit to Specific Regions

dumpcft --profile your-aws-profile --regions us-east-1,us-west-2 templates

File Format

Templates are saved with the following naming convention:

<AWS_ACCOUNT_ID>.<REGION>.<STACK_NAME>.cfn.<FORMAT>

For example:

• 012345678901.us-east-1.my-application-stack.cfn.yaml
• 012345678901.us-west-2.database-stack.cfn.json

The format extension (.yaml or .json) is automatically determined by analyzing the template content.

Use Cases

• Infrastructure Auditing: Snapshot all your CloudFormation templates for compliance reviews
• Documentation: Export templates to include in architecture documentation
• Code Archaeology: Analyze historical infrastructure changes by comparing template snapshots
• Backup: Store copies of critical infrastructure templates for disaster recovery
• Migration: Prepare for cross-account or cross-region migrations

AWS Permissions

The following AWS permissions are required:

• cloudformation:DescribeStacks
• cloudformation:GetTemplate
• ec2:DescribeRegions
• sts:GetCallerIdentity

Development

Prerequisites

• Go 1.24 or higher
• AWS account for integration testing

Build

make build

Test

make test

Security Checks

make check

Format Code

make fmt

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please follow these steps:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add amazing feature')
4. Push to your branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

Before submitting:

• Run make fmt to ensure consistent code formatting
• Run make test to verify all tests pass
• Run make check to perform security and code quality checks

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License – see the LICENSE file for details.