Connect LabAmazon Connect study

Instance

CloudFormation, CDK, and Terraform

Learn it in 5 minutes

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About five minutes of reading

Clicking the console does not review. A stack does.

The resource types you will actually diff are AWS::Connect::Instance, ContactFlow, ContactFlowModule, HoursOfOperation, Queue, RoutingProfile, User, SecurityProfile, PhoneNumber, QuickConnect, Rule, and TrafficDistributionGroup. Flow content is flow-language JSON.

Terraform mirrors the important ones, including aws_connect_lambda_function_association and aws_connect_bot_association. Association resources are how code attaches Lambda and Lex. The flow still has to reference them.

  • CDK uses the same CloudFormation types.
  • Phone number resources can fail for quota reasons the template cannot see.
  • Do not put production flow JSON only in a laptop. The JSON is the source of truth the designer also edits, so pick one writer.
  • aws-samples and amazon-connect/amazon-connect-streams are the public code to read, not to paste into production unchanged.

Number on this page: Flow format JSON. Flow language

Confirm before relying. Prices, quotas, and exam names change. Use the source linked on this page.

Visual

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CloudFormation, CDK, and Terraform
Diagram SVGDiagram PNGDiagram HTMLFlow SVGFlow PNGFlow HTML

Picture from this room.

Worked example

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  1. Author. JSON in review.
  2. Deploy. Stack or Terraform.
  3. Associate. Lambda and Lex.
  4. Drift. Check the designer.

What usually goes wrong: Exporting a flow once and calling the export a pipeline.

Quiz

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Question 1

Which term matches this description? Terraform AWS provider resource for the instance.

Show the cited answer

Terraform AWS provider resource for the instance. The term is IaC: aws_connect_instance.

Terraform Registry: connect_instance community. last checked 2026-10

Question 2

Which term matches this description? Terraform resource for flow JSON.

Show the cited answer

Terraform resource for flow JSON. The term is IaC: aws_connect_contact_flow.

Terraform Registry: connect_contact_flow community. last checked 2026-10

Question 3

Which term matches this description? Terraform association that lets a flow invoke the function.

Show the cited answer

Terraform association that lets a flow invoke the function. The term is IaC: aws_connect_lambda_function_association.

Terraform Registry: connect_lambda_function_association community. last checked 2026-10

Sources

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Connect Customer Flow language - Amazon Connect AWS docs. last checked 2026-10

The prose is a study paraphrase. The link is the source of the facts.

Ecosystem

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Glossary

  • Instance The Connect container in one Region. It holds users, flows, queues, and numbers. A new account starts at two instances per Region.
  • my.connect.aws The current instance domain. awsapps.com is the old domain the docs say is going away.

Mind map

Open the Instance mind map

Sister technologies

Every number, user, and flow lives in one instance in one Region. Get this wrong and the rest of the design has no home.

Config and troubleshooting

Exporting a flow once and calling the export a pipeline.

One instance, one Region. IdentityManagementType is SAML or CONNECT_MANAGED. The alias becomes the instance name.

CfnInstance AWS::Connect::Instance

CloudFormation study snippet
Resources:
  CampusInstance:
    Type: AWS::Connect::Instance
    Properties:
      IdentityManagementType: CONNECT_MANAGED
      InstanceAlias: campus-demo
      Attributes:
        InboundCalls: true
        OutboundCalls: true
        ContactflowLogs: true

Integration map

Join records on ContactId. The integration map room lists the seams.

Cross-platform bridges

A CUCM calling search space is not a routing profile, but the profile is the closest idea of 'who can receive what'. A partition is not a Connect object. A UCCX CSQ and a UCCE skill group map to a queue. Precision steps map to routing criteria. A script, an Architect flow, and an Avaya vector map to a contact flow.

Open the mapping room

Future hooks

Hooks you can adopt later: EventBridge contact events, the CTR stream, agent events, Kinesis Video, Customer Profiles events, Cases, Show view, data tables, External Tool, and the flow language JSON in your pipeline. Live Sync and Agentic CX are the 2026 hooks for guided and agentic experiences.

Sources and go deeper

sources.json