A CLI tool for deleting AWS CloudFormation stacks. Handles everything from routine deletions to stacks containing resources that fail to delete. Unlike CloudFormation's built-in FORCE_DELETE_STACK which leaves failed resources behind, delstack actually cleans them up with no orphaned resources.

Works with stacks from AWS CDK, AWS SAM, AWS Amplify, Serverless Framework, and any IaC tool using CloudFormation.

• Force delete undeletable resources: Automatically cleans up resources blocking deletion, such as non-empty S3 buckets, and more resource types
• Parallel deletion with dependency resolution: Deletes multiple stacks with maximum parallelism while respecting inter-stack dependencies
• Interactive stack selection: Search and select stacks in a TUI with case-insensitive filtering
• Deletion protection handling: Detects resource-level protection (EC2, RDS, Cognito, etc.) and stack TerminationProtection. With -f, automatically disables them before deletion
• Pre-deletion optimization: Detaches Lambda VPC configurations in parallel to eliminate ENI cleanup wait time
• Retain policy override: Force deletes resources with Retain or RetainExceptOnCreate deletion policies via -f
• GitHub Actions support: Available as a GitHub Actions workflow for CI/CD stack cleanup

• Homebrew

  brew install go-to-k/tap/delstack

• Linux, Darwin (macOS) and Windows

  curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/go-to-k/delstack/main/install.sh | sh
  delstack -h
  
  # To install a specific version of delstack
  # e.g. version 1.2.0
  curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/go-to-k/delstack/main/install.sh | sh -s "v1.2.0"
  delstack -h

• aqua

  aqua g -i go-to-k/delstack

• Binary

  • Releases

• Git Clone and install (for developers)

  git clone https://github.com/go-to-k/delstack.git
  cd delstack
  make install

delstack [-s <stackName>] [-p <profile>] [-r <region>] [-i|--interactive] [-f|--force] [-y|--yes] [-n <concurrencyNumber>]

• -s, --stackName: optional
  • CloudFormation stack name
    • Required in non-interactive mode
    • In interactive mode, you can select stacks from the UI instead
  • Multiple stack names can be specified.
    • delstack -s test1 -s test2
    • Multiple stacks are deleted in parallel by default, taking dependencies between stacks into account.
    • You can limit the number of parallel deletions with the -n option (e.g., delstack -s test1 -s test2 -s test3 -n 2).
• -p, --profile: optional
  • AWS profile name
• -r, --region: optional(default: us-east-1)
  • AWS Region
• -i, --interactive: optional
  • Interactive Mode
• -f, --force: optional
  • Force Mode to delete stacks including resources with deletion policy Retain/RetainExceptOnCreate, resources with deletion protection, and stacks with TerminationProtection
• -y, --yes: optional
  • Skip confirmation prompts (e.g., TerminationProtection disable confirmation)
• -n, --concurrencyNumber: optional(default: unlimited)
  • Specify the number of parallel stack deletions. Default is unlimited (delete all stacks in parallel).

This tool supports force deletion of the following resource types that cause DELETE_FAILED in normal CloudFormation stack deletion. All other resources are deleted normally, so you can use this tool for any stack.

If you need support for additional resource types, please create an issue at GitHub.

Note: If there are resources other than those listed above that result in DELETE_FAILED, the deletion will fail. Resources that are referenced by stacks outside the deletion targets are not supported for force deletion. However, if all dependent stacks are included in the deletion targets, they are deleted in the correct dependency order automatically.

This tool automatically performs the following processing before CloudFormation deletion starts.

Checks for resource-level deletion protection before attempting stack deletion.

Without -f option: If any resources have deletion protection enabled, the tool reports them and aborts without attempting deletion.

With -f option: Deletion protection is automatically disabled before deletion proceeds.

The following resources do not fail during normal deletion, but are optimized in advance to improve deletion speed.

When using interactive mode (-i, --interactive) without specifying stack names, you can search stack names case-insensitively and select stacks.

The filter keyword can be empty.

❯ delstack -i
Filter a keyword of stack names(case-insensitive): goto

Then you select stack names in the UI.

? Select StackNames.
Nested child stacks, XXX_IN_PROGRESS(e.g. ROLLBACK_IN_PROGRESS) status stacks and EnableTerminationProtection stacks are not displayed.
  [Use arrows to move, space to select, <right> to all, <left> to none, type to filter]
  [x]  dev-goto-04-TestStack
  [ ]  dev-GOTO-03-TestStack
> [x]  dev-Goto-02-TestStack
  [ ]  dev-goto-01-TestStack

• Nested child stacks: Parent stacks should generally be deleted as a whole. If you need to delete a child stack directly, specify its name with the -s option instead of using interactive mode.
• XXX_IN_PROGRESS stacks (e.g. ROLLBACK_IN_PROGRESS): Multiple CloudFormation operations should not run on the same stack simultaneously.
• TerminationProtection stacks: Not displayed without -f. With -f, they appear with a * prefix marker.

The -f, --force option enables deletion of stacks that would otherwise be blocked:

• Retain/RetainExceptOnCreate deletion policies: Resources with these policies are force deleted instead of being retained
• Resource-level deletion protection (EC2, RDS, Cognito, etc.): Protection is automatically disabled before deletion
• Stack TerminationProtection: After a confirmation prompt, protection is disabled and the stack is deleted

delstack -f -s dev-goto-01-TestStack

When using force mode with stacks that have large templates (exceeding 51,200 bytes, CloudFormation's direct template size limit), delstack automatically:

1. Creates a temporary S3 bucket in your account
2. Uploads the modified template to the bucket
3. Updates the stack via S3 template URL
4. Deletes the temporary S3 bucket after the operation completes

When you specify multiple stacks (via the -s option or interactive mode -i), delstack automatically analyzes CloudFormation stack dependencies (via Outputs/Exports and Imports) and deletes stacks in parallel while respecting dependency constraints.

1. Dependency Analysis: Analyzes stack dependencies through CloudFormation Exports and Imports
2. Circular Dependency Detection: Detects and reports circular dependencies before deletion
3. External Reference Protection: Prevents deletion of stacks whose exports are used by non-target stacks
4. Dynamic Parallel Deletion: Deletes stacks in dependency order with maximum parallelism

The deletion process uses a reverse topological sort with dynamic scheduling:

Example: Stacks A, B, C, D, E, F with dependencies:
  C → A (C depends on A)
  D → A
  E → B
  F → C, D, E

Deletion order (reverse dependencies):
  Step 1: Delete F (no stacks depend on it)
  Step 2: Delete C, D, E in parallel (after F completes)
  Step 3: Delete B (after E completes)
  Step 4: Delete A (after both C and D complete)

Key Features:

• Stacks are deleted as soon as all dependent stacks are deleted
• Multiple independent stacks are deleted in parallel
• By default, there is no limit on the number of concurrent deletions
• The -n option allows you to limit the maximum number of concurrent deletions if needed

• Circular Dependencies: Detected before deletion starts, with the dependency cycle path reported
• External References: If a target stack's export is imported by a non-target stack, deletion is prevented with a detailed error message
• Partial Failures: If any stack fails to delete, all remaining deletions are cancelled

You can use delstack in GitHub Actions Workflow. To delete multiple stacks, specify stack names separated by commas.

Note: The yes option defaults to true in GitHub Actions because CI/CD environments cannot handle interactive prompts. Set yes: false only if you want the action to abort when a confirmation prompt would appear (e.g., TerminationProtection disable confirmation).

jobs:
  delstack:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v3
      - name: Configure AWS credentials
        uses: aws-actions/configure-aws-credentials@v3
        with:
          role-to-assume: arn:aws:iam::123456789100:role/my-github-actions-role
          # Or specify access keys.
          # aws-access-key-id: ${{ secrets.AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID }}
          # aws-secret-access-key: ${{ secrets.AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY }}
          aws-region: us-east-1
      - name: Delete stack
        uses: go-to-k/delstack@main # Or specify the version instead of main
        with:
          stack-name: YourStack
          # stack-name: YourStack1, YourStack2, YourStack3 # To delete multiple stacks (deleted in parallel by default)
          force: true # Force Mode to delete stacks including resources with the deletion policy Retain or RetainExceptOnCreate (default: false)
          # yes: true # Skip confirmation prompts (default: true in GitHub Actions)
          concurrency-number: 4 # Number of parallel stack deletions (default: unlimited)
          region: us-east-1

You can also run raw commands after installing the delstack binary.

jobs:
  delstack:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v3
      - name: Configure AWS credentials
        uses: aws-actions/configure-aws-credentials@v3
        with:
          role-to-assume: arn:aws:iam::123456789100:role/my-github-actions-role
          # Or specify access keys.
          # aws-access-key-id: ${{ secrets.AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID }}
          # aws-secret-access-key: ${{ secrets.AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY }}
          aws-region: us-east-1
      - name: Install delstack
        uses: go-to-k/delstack@main # Or specify the version instead of main
      - name: Run delstack
        run: |
          echo "delstack"
          delstack -v
          delstack -s YourStack1 -s YourStack2 -r us-east-1

See CONTRIBUTING.md for development setup, adding new resource support, and coding conventions.