aws-cdk: separate dependencies from devDependencies to work with pnpm

[aphex]

Describe the bug

When using the CDK with pnpm it is prone to have package hoisting issues as all the packages are declared as devDependencies not dependencies. Looking at

https://unpkg.com/aws-cdk@2.53.0/package.json

I am seeing all dependencies have been moved to devDependencies however in the code itself it looks like there are normal dependencies (https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/blob/main/packages/aws-cdk/package.json#L94).

When these are only declared as dev pnpm is not hoisting the dependency (as it is not declared as one that is needed to use the package), which causes aws-cdk to load yaml@2.0 instead of yaml@1.0 if there is another package in the monorepo that has a hard dependency on yaml@2.0.

Expected Behavior

Dependencies and devDependencies should be maintained in the released npm package indicating packages needed to use the cdk vs packages just needed when developing it.

Current Behavior

All dependencies are merged into devDependencies when released

Reproduction Steps

Create a pnpm workspace where the main package.json depends on lint-staged as well as aws-cdk. Attmepting to use the cdk will result in yaml errors when trying to use yaml/types for example.

Possible Solution

Maintain dependencies when released.

Additional Information/Context

Workaround for this is to add the following to your pnpm config in paclage.json

"aws-cdk": {
  "dependencies": {
    "yaml": "1.10.2"
  }
}

CDK CLI Version

n/a

Framework Version

No response

Node.js Version

16

OS

WSL/Ubuntu

Language

Typescript

Language Version

No response

Other information

No response

[alistairstead]

I don't understand this being reclassified as a feature-request? The dependencies of the package are defined in a way that causes runtime errors when using package managers that do not hoist dependencies.

Even outside of how package managers work, surely this is a defect, not a feature request?

[corymhall]

Attmepting to use the cdk will result in yaml errors when trying to use yaml/types for example.

@aphex do you mean executing the CLI (i.e. cdk deploy) throws the error? Or are you importing aws-cdk somewhere in your code?

[mrgrain]

FYI the published version of aws-cdk is bundling all its dependencies and should not attempt to use any other deps. If it does, that's certainly undesired behavior.

[aphex]

@corymhall this came up while using SST (https://sst.dev/) with pnpm. It is using the CDK we are using it and liny-staged this combination seemed to cause a mix up with the yaml package where aws-cdk was getting linked up to v2 of the yaml package and not v1.

@mrgrain we were definitely getting a runtime error from the aws-cdk package trying to load the yaml package so maybe something is off in bundling there. That would make more sense on why the dependencies are moved.

[mrgrain]

@aphex I can't reproduce this with the instructions you've provided. Can you please setup a repo that reproduced the issue?

However, I strongly suspect however SST is using CDK is not something that we are currently aware of and thus likely don't support. Not that we strictly wouldn't but if we don't know what they are doing.... You might want to talk to them.

package.json

{
  "name": "pnpm-test",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "",
  "main": "index.js",
  "scripts": {
    "cdk": "cdk"
  },
  "keywords": [],
  "author": "",
  "license": "MIT",
  "dependencies": {
    "aws-cdk-lib": "^2.53.0",
    "constructs": "^10.0.0"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "@types/node": "^18.11.11",
    "aws-cdk": "^2.53.0",
    "lint-staged": "^13.1.0",
    "ts-node": "^10.9.1",
    "typescript": "^4.9.3"
  }
}

app.ts

import * as cdk from "aws-cdk-lib";
import * as s3 from "aws-cdk-lib/aws-s3";

const app = new cdk.App();
const stack = new cdk.Stack(app);
new s3.Bucket(stack, 'MyBucket');
app.synth();

Running

pnpm cdk synth --app "ts-node app.ts"