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Dipesh Jaiswal
Dipesh Jaiswal

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Multi‑Account AWS Deployments with Serverless Framework

Managing deployments across multiple AWS accounts often comes with credential headaches - constantly switching profiles, forgetting --aws-profile, or accidentally deploying to the wrong environment. In this post, I’ll show you how to streamline the process by mapping stages to AWS CLI profiles directly in your serverless.yml, making deployments pain-free and consistent.

⚙️ Why This Approach Matters

  • No more CLI flags: Skip --aws-profile on every command, just use --stage and you're done.
  • Safer workflows: Avoid accidentally deploying to production from your dev environment.
  • Reusable pattern: Set it once, add new environments in seconds, ideal for scaling teams and CI/CD pipelines.

✅ Prerequisites

  1. Multiple AWS CLI profiles set up, each targeting the intended AWS account: 
   aws configure --profile dev
   aws configure --profile prod
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  1. Serverless Framework CLI installed: 
   npm install -g serverless
   sls create --template aws-nodejs
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🧩 Configure serverless.yml

Step 1: Map deployment stages to profiles 

custom:
  profiles:
    dev: dev
    prod: prod
    test: test
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Step 2: Use dynamic interpolation for provider.profile 

provider:
  name: aws
  runtime: nodejs18.x
  region: ap-south-1
  stage: ${opt:stage, 'dev'}
  profile: ${self:custom.profiles.${self:provider.stage}}
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  • ${opt:stage, 'dev'} uses CLI --stage, defaulting to dev.
  • ${...custom.profiles...} fetches the matching AWS profile.
  • The result? No more need to type --aws-profile.

🔍 Full Example 

service: multi-account-service
frameworkVersion: '~4.4.0'

custom:
  profiles:
    dev: dev
    prod: prod
    test: test

provider:
  name: aws
  runtime: nodejs18.x
  region: ap-south-1
  stage: ${opt:stage, 'dev'}
  profile: ${self:custom.profiles.${self:provider.stage}}

functions:
  handler:
    handler: handler.main
    events:
      - httpApi:
          path: /
          method: ANY
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🛠 Deploying Is Simple 

sls deploy            # → uses profile "dev"
sls deploy --stage prod  # → uses "prod"
sls deploy --stage test  # → uses "test"
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💡 Best Practices

  • Keep credentials private: Never commit them to Git.
  • CI/CD-friendly: Define AWS_PROFILE via environment variables or secrets.
  • Team guidance Document the mapping in your README for clarity.
  • Easily extendable Add more stages like staging, qa, or uat as you grow.

📝 Next Steps

This pattern is live in our projects, and it’s saved us from accidental deployments and excessive CLI flags. Give it a go in your own project, and if it works for you, let me know! I’m planning to follow up with posts on CI/CD pipelines, credentials rotation, and advanced Serverless best practices.

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