Two simple skeleton tempates which should be used to initialize when creating a new template from scratch. In general it is important that only the resources area is required and at least one resource must be created. All other sections are optional.

YAML skeleton

The following snippet shows the basic structure of a YAML template:

---
AWSTemplateFormatVersion: "2010-09-09"
Description: A simple skeleton
Metadata:

Parameters:

Mappings:

Conditions:

Transform:

Resources:

Outputs:

JSON skeleton

The following snippet shows the basic structure of a JSON template:

{
  "AWSTemplateFormatVersion" : "2010-09-09",

  "Description" : "A simple skeleton",

  "Metadata" : {
  },

  "Parameters" : {
  },

  "Mappings" : {
  },

  "Conditions" : {
  },

  "Transform" : {
  },

  "Resources" : {
  },

  "Outputs" : {
  }
}

Read more about the AWS CloudFormation Template Anatomy