(cli): format of tags in cdk.json is not validated, easy to get wrong

[SydneyUni-Jim]

Describe the bug

After adding tags to the local cdk.json, cdk deploy fails with an InvalidParameterType: Expected params.Tags to be an Array from aws-sdk.

Expected Behavior

The synthesized template deploys with the tags in cdk.json.

Current Behavior

❯ cdk deploy

✨  Synthesis time: 3.04s

HelloCdkStack: deploying...
[0%] start: Publishing 774231a5b4dfea162ee0964f8335b364aee003aa142c95fb1c4d3e49537db261:current_account-current_region
[100%] success: Published 774231a5b4dfea162ee0964f8335b364aee003aa142c95fb1c4d3e49537db261:current_account-current_region
HelloCdkStack: creating CloudFormation changeset...

 ❌  HelloCdkStack failed: InvalidParameterType: Expected params.Tags to be an Array
    at ParamValidator.fail (/opt/homebrew/Cellar/aws-cdk/2.29.0/libexec/lib/node_modules/aws-sdk/lib/param_validator.js:50:37)
    at ParamValidator.validateType (/opt/homebrew/Cellar/aws-cdk/2.29.0/libexec/lib/node_modules/aws-sdk/lib/param_validator.js:233:10)
    at ParamValidator.validateList (/opt/homebrew/Cellar/aws-cdk/2.29.0/libexec/lib/node_modules/aws-sdk/lib/param_validator.js:100:14)
    at ParamValidator.validateMember (/opt/homebrew/Cellar/aws-cdk/2.29.0/libexec/lib/node_modules/aws-sdk/lib/param_validator.js:91:21)
    at ParamValidator.validateStructure (/opt/homebrew/Cellar/aws-cdk/2.29.0/libexec/lib/node_modules/aws-sdk/lib/param_validator.js:76:14)
    at ParamValidator.validateMember (/opt/homebrew/Cellar/aws-cdk/2.29.0/libexec/lib/node_modules/aws-sdk/lib/param_validator.js:89:21)
    at ParamValidator.validate2 [as validate] (/opt/homebrew/Cellar/aws-cdk/2.29.0/libexec/lib/node_modules/aws-sdk/lib/param_validator.js:34:10)
    at Request.VALIDATE_PARAMETERS (/opt/homebrew/Cellar/aws-cdk/2.29.0/libexec/lib/node_modules/aws-sdk/lib/event_listeners.js:132:42)
    at Request.callListeners (/opt/homebrew/Cellar/aws-cdk/2.29.0/libexec/lib/node_modules/aws-sdk/lib/sequential_executor.js:106:20)
    at callNextListener (/opt/homebrew/Cellar/aws-cdk/2.29.0/libexec/lib/node_modules/aws-sdk/lib/sequential_executor.js:96:12) {
  code: 'InvalidParameterType',
  time: 2022-06-24T02:18:15.714Z
}

Expected params.Tags to be an Array

Reproduction Steps

1. mkdir hello-cdk
2. cd hello-cdk
3. cdk init app --language typescript
4. cdk deploy

So far this works.

1. Replace cdk.json with this cdk.json.
2. cdk deploy

This fails.

Possible Solution

No response

Additional Information/Context

No response

CDK CLI Version

2.29.0 (build 47d7ec4)

Framework Version

No response

Node.js Version

v16.15.1

OS

macOS 12.4 arm64

Language

Typescript

Language Version

4.7.4

Other information

Documentation reference: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cdk/v2/guide/cli.html#cli-config

tags - JSON object containing tags (key-value pairs) for the stack.

[SydneyUni-Jim]

For reference the replacement cdk.json is.

{
  "app": "npx ts-node --prefer-ts-exts bin/hello-cdk.ts",
  "context": {
    "@aws-cdk-containers/ecs-service-extensions:enableDefaultLogDriver": true,
    "@aws-cdk/aws-apigateway:usagePlanKeyOrderInsensitiveId": true,
    "@aws-cdk/aws-cloudfront:defaultSecurityPolicyTLSv1.2_2021": true,
    "@aws-cdk/aws-codepipeline:crossAccountKeyAliasStackSafeResourceName": true,
    "@aws-cdk/aws-ec2:uniqueImdsv2TemplateName": true,
    "@aws-cdk/aws-iam:minimizePolicies": true,
    "@aws-cdk/aws-lambda:recognizeLayerVersion": true,
    "@aws-cdk/aws-lambda:recognizeVersionProps": true,
    "@aws-cdk/aws-rds:lowercaseDbIdentifier": true,
    "@aws-cdk/core:checkSecretUsage": true,
    "@aws-cdk/core:stackRelativeExports": true,
    "@aws-cdk/core:target-partitions": ["aws"],
    "@aws-cdk/core:validateSnapshotRemovalPolicy": true
  },
  "tags": {
    "Tag1": "value1",
    "Tag2": "value2"
  },
  "watch": {
    "include": [
      "**"
    ],
    "exclude": [
      "README.md",
      "cdk*.json",
      "**/*.d.ts",
      "**/*.js",
      "tsconfig.json",
      "package*.json",
      "yarn.lock",
      "node_modules",
      "test"
    ]
  }
}

[rix0rrr]

This is sorely underdocumented, and if I were you I would put the tags in the CDK App rather than in the CLI config, but for reference the format of the tag field needs to be:

{
  "tags": [
    {
       "Key": "...",
       "Value": "..."
    }
  ]
}

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