# aws/serverless-application-model

The AWS Serverless Application Model (AWS SAM) transform is a AWS CloudFormation macro that transforms SAM templates into CloudFormation templates.

Repository: https://github.com/aws/serverless-application-model
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/serverless-application-model
Homepage: https://aws.amazon.com/serverless/sam
Language: Python
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Topics: serverless, aws, lambda, aws-sam, sam, sam-specification, serverless-applications, serverless-application-model
Last push: 2026-08-25T16:13:34+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 95/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 87, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3614, "days_push": 8, "days_rel": 9, "gap_med": 40, "n_releases_24m": 22}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 9561, forks 2459 (observed 2026-08-28T04:10:31.926462+00:00)

## What it is
The AWS Serverless Application Model (SAM) transform is a CloudFormation macro, published as the aws-sam-translator Python package, that converts shorthand SAM templates into full CloudFormation templates. It provides built-in best practices and sane defaults for defining serverless resources like Lambda functions, APIs, and event sources as infrastructure as code.

## Use cases
- define serverless infrastructure as code with shorthand syntax
- transform SAM templates into CloudFormation templates
- deploy AWS Lambda functions and APIs via CloudFormation
- provision serverless applications with best-practice defaults
- validate and translate SAM template YAML locally
- manage AWS infrastructure declaratively

## When to choose
- you are building serverless applications on AWS with Lambda, API Gateway, or DynamoDB
- you want concise infrastructure-as-code templates that expand to CloudFormation
- you want built-in best practices and sane defaults for serverless resources
- you use the AWS SAM CLI for local testing and deployment
- you need programmatic SAM-to-CloudFormation translation in Python

## When to avoid
- you deploy to non-AWS clouds or want cloud-agnostic infrastructure
- you need full low-level control over raw CloudFormation resources
- your infrastructure is container-based (ECS/EKS) rather than serverless
- you use Terraform or Pulumi as your primary IaC tool without SAM integration

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: active
- function: infrastructure-as-code, deployment, compiler, configuration-management
- domain: cloud-computing, infrastructure-as-code, developer-tools
- platform: python, cloud
- tags: aws-sam, cloudformation, aws-lambda, serverless, template-transform, macro, infrastructure-as-code, devops

## Member repositories
- aws/serverless-application-model (main) score 95

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:31.926462+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T17:21:56.818504+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/aws/serverless-application-model (fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:31.926462+00:00, sha e9889f7d37d2)
  - homepage: https://aws.amazon.com/serverless/sam (fetched 2026-08-29T08:21:49.228941+00:00, sha 3e4c4e9c3d3c)
  - site_page: https://aws.amazon.com/getting-started?nc2=h_dsc_aa_gs (fetched 2026-08-29T08:21:49.240846+00:00, sha f35fd0664950)
  - site_page: https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/global-infrastructure?nc2=h_dsc_aa_gi (fetched 2026-08-29T08:21:49.243365+00:00, sha 79a446e5fbd1)
  - site_page: https://aws.amazon.com/products/developer-tools/agent-toolkit-for-aws?nc2=h_dsc_ex_s5 (fetched 2026-08-29T08:21:49.237856+00:00, sha 3cc21b596f92)
  - site_page: https://aws.amazon.com/pricing?nc2=h_pr_hub (fetched 2026-08-29T08:21:49.245931+00:00, sha e2abd01d7981)
  - site_page: https://aws.amazon.com/savingsplans?nc2=h_pr_sp (fetched 2026-08-29T08:21:49.248263+00:00, sha 9ff3c7ad93e0)
  - site_page: https://aws.amazon.com/s3/pricing?nc2=h_pr_s3 (fetched 2026-08-29T08:21:49.250094+00:00, sha 97bbf99c3793)
  - site_page: https://aws.amazon.com/bedrock/pricing?nc2=h_pr_br (fetched 2026-08-29T08:21:49.253386+00:00, sha 4ccc538a3696)
  - site_page: https://aws.amazon.com/rds/pricing?nc2=h_pr_rds (fetched 2026-08-29T08:21:49.255286+00:00, sha 538280f30c8a)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.