// the find
getlift/lift
Expanding Serverless Framework beyond functions using the AWS CDK
Lift is a Serverless Framework plugin that wraps AWS CDK constructs into simple serverless.yml declarations — static sites, SQS queues, S3 buckets, webhooks, DynamoDB tables. It's aimed at teams already on Serverless Framework who want CDK-quality infrastructure without learning CDK. Think of it as a higher-level abstraction layer that generates CloudFormation under the hood.
The eject path is real and practical — `serverless lift eject` dumps the CloudFormation so you're not permanently hostage to the abstraction. The `extensions` escape hatch lets you override any underlying CloudFormation resource property without forking the construct, which is the right call for an opinionated tool. Test coverage is solid: every construct has a corresponding unit test file with fixture configs, and they mock AWS rather than hitting it live. Last push was June 2026, so it's actively maintained despite the modest star count.
The construct catalog is thin — eight constructs total, and VPC is buried in the source but not documented in the README. If your use case isn't a queue, static site, or basic DynamoDB table, you're writing raw CDK or CloudFormation anyway. The plugin is tightly coupled to the Serverless Framework, which itself has a complicated history and a commercial fork situation; betting on this means betting on that ecosystem. DynamoDB single-table design is enforced as the only database option, which is a reasonable default but a hard wall if your access patterns don't fit.