SST — Full-Stack Framework for Building on AWS

Introduction

SST is an open-source framework that makes it straightforward to build full-stack applications on AWS. It provides high-level constructs for common patterns like APIs, databases, cron jobs, and frontends, while using infrastructure-as-code under the hood so you own every resource in your AWS account.

What SST Does

• Deploys full-stack apps to your own AWS account using infrastructure as code
• Supports Next.js, Remix, Astro, SvelteKit, and other frontend frameworks out of the box
• Provides a live development mode that connects your local machine to real cloud resources
• Manages secrets, environment variables, and resource linking across services
• Generates type-safe bindings so your code can reference infrastructure resources directly

Architecture Overview

SST uses Pulumi under the hood (as of SST v3) to provision AWS resources. When you run sst dev, it starts a local development environment that proxies Lambda invocations to your machine so you can set breakpoints and iterate without redeploying. A multiplexer process manages these connections. For production, sst deploy creates a standard CloudFormation-backed deployment through Pulumi.

Self-Hosting & Configuration

• Install the SST CLI via npm and run sst init to scaffold a project with sst.config.ts
• Configure AWS credentials via environment variables or the AWS CLI profile
• Define infrastructure in TypeScript using SST components like Api, Cron, Bucket, and Nextjs
• Set secrets with sst secret set KEY value which stores them encrypted in AWS SSM Parameter Store
• Deploy to multiple stages (dev, staging, prod) using sst deploy --stage <name>

Key Features

• Live Lambda: debug cloud functions locally with real AWS event sources
• Resource linking: type-safe references between infrastructure and application code
• Multi-framework: drop-in support for Next.js, Remix, Astro, SolidStart, and static sites
• Console: a web dashboard for managing deploys, logs, and issues across stages
• Composable components: extend or create custom infrastructure components in TypeScript

Comparison with Similar Tools

• Serverless Framework — YAML-based config with plugin ecosystem; SST is TypeScript-native with live debugging
• AWS CDK — lower-level IaC library; SST adds full-stack conventions, live dev, and frontend integration
• Pulumi — general-purpose IaC; SST wraps Pulumi with opinionated full-stack patterns
• Vercel — managed hosting platform; SST deploys to your own AWS account for full control
• Nitric — cloud-portable framework; SST is AWS-focused with deeper AWS service integration

FAQ

Q: Does SST only work with AWS? A: SST v3 is designed for AWS. If you need multi-cloud, you can use the underlying Pulumi providers, but SST's high-level components target AWS services specifically.

Q: How does live development work? A: sst dev deploys a thin stub to AWS Lambda that forwards invocations to your local machine over a WebSocket connection. Your local code runs with real cloud events, real databases, and real queues.

Q: Can I use SST with an existing AWS project? A: Yes. You can adopt SST incrementally by importing existing resources or by adding SST components alongside resources managed by other tools.

Q: Is SST free? A: The framework is open source and free. You pay only for the AWS resources your application consumes. SST Console has a free tier and paid plans for teams.

Sources

• https://github.com/sst/sst
• https://sst.dev/docs