SST Has a Free API: Deploy Full-Stack Apps to AWS With TypeScript, Not CloudFormation

SST (Serverless Stack) lets you define and deploy full-stack apps on AWS using TypeScript. It abstracts CloudFormation into simple, composable constructs and provides a live development environment.

Why SST?

• TypeScript infra — define AWS resources in TypeScript, not YAML
• Live Lambda — live reload for Lambda functions during dev
• Full-stack — frontend + API + database + auth in one framework
• Components — high-level constructs for common patterns
• Free — open source, you pay only for AWS

Quick Start

npx create-sst@latest my-app
cd my-app
npx sst dev  # Live development
npx sst deploy --stage prod  # Production deploy

Define Infrastructure (TypeScript)

// sst.config.ts
export default $config({
  app(input) {
    return {
      name: 'my-app',
      removal: input.stage === 'prod' ? 'retain' : 'remove',
    };
  },
  async run() {
    // Database
    const table = new sst.aws.Dynamo('Users', {
      fields: { userId: 'string', email: 'string' },
      primaryIndex: { hashKey: 'userId' },
      globalIndexes: { emailIndex: { hashKey: 'email' } },
    });

    // API
    const api = new sst.aws.ApiGatewayV2('Api');
    api.route('GET /users', 'packages/functions/src/users.list');
    api.route('GET /users/{id}', 'packages/functions/src/users.get');
    api.route('POST /users', 'packages/functions/src/users.create');

    // Link resources
    new sst.aws.Function('CreateUser', {
      handler: 'packages/functions/src/users.create',
      link: [table],
    });

    // Frontend
    const site = new sst.aws.Nextjs('Web', {
      link: [api],
    });

    return { url: site.url, api: api.url };
  },
});

Lambda Functions

// packages/functions/src/users.ts
import { Resource } from 'sst';
import { DynamoDBClient } from '@aws-sdk/client-dynamodb';
import { DynamoDBDocumentClient, PutCommand, GetCommand, ScanCommand } from '@aws-sdk/lib-dynamodb';

const ddb = DynamoDBDocumentClient.from(new DynamoDBClient({}));

export async function list() {
  const result = await ddb.send(new ScanCommand({
    TableName: Resource.Users.name,
  }));
  return { statusCode: 200, body: JSON.stringify(result.Items) };
}

export async function get(event: any) {
  const result = await ddb.send(new GetCommand({
    TableName: Resource.Users.name,
    Key: { userId: event.pathParameters.id },
  }));
  return { statusCode: 200, body: JSON.stringify(result.Item) };
}

export async function create(event: any) {
  const body = JSON.parse(event.body);
  await ddb.send(new PutCommand({
    TableName: Resource.Users.name,
    Item: { userId: crypto.randomUUID(), ...body },
  }));
  return { statusCode: 201, body: JSON.stringify({ success: true }) };
}

Components

// Cron job
new sst.aws.Cron('DailyReport', {
  schedule: 'rate(1 day)',
  job: 'packages/functions/src/report.handler',
});

// Queue
const queue = new sst.aws.Queue('EmailQueue');
queue.subscribe('packages/functions/src/email.handler');

// Bucket
const bucket = new sst.aws.Bucket('Uploads');
bucket.subscribe('packages/functions/src/process.handler', {
  events: ['object_created'],
});

// Auth
const auth = new sst.aws.Auth('Auth', {
  authenticator: 'packages/functions/src/auth.handler',
});

Key Features

Feature	Details
Language	TypeScript
Cloud	AWS
Live dev	Live Lambda for instant feedback
Components	API, Database, Queue, Cron, Auth, etc.
Frameworks	Next.js, Remix, Astro, SvelteKit
Deploys	~30 seconds (incremental)

Resources

• SST Docs
• Components
• Examples

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Building on AWS? Check my Apify actors or email [e-mail].