Announcing the end of support for Node.js 14.x and 16.x in AWS CDK

On May 30th, 2025, the AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK) will no longer support Node.js 14.x and 16.x, which reached end of life on 4/30/2023 (14.x) and 9/11/2023 (16.x). This change applies to all AWS CDK components that depend on Node.js, including the AWS CDK CLI, the Construct Library, and broader CDK ecosystem projects such as JSII, Projen, and CDK8s.

We encourage you to upgrade to a Node.js Active Long Term Support (LTS) version, which is Node.js 22.x as of March 11th, 2025. Given that Node.js 14.x and 16.x are past end of life, we recommend migrating your CDK projects to newer Node.js LTS versions as soon as possible.

Why are we doing this?

Node.js 14x and 16.x are past their End of Life and are no longer supported by the Node.js community. This means that there have not been any bug fixes or security updates to these versions. To make sure that we are providing up-to-date and secure libraries, we will drop support for these versions.

What’s changing?

After May 30th, 2025, the AWS CDK will no longer support Node.js 14.x and 16.x. While your existing deployments may continue to work, we will not address issues specific to these versions. Any bug reports or support cases that stem from using Node.js 14.x or 16.x will require reproducing the issue on a supported version of Node.js (18.x, 20.x, 22.x – as of February 26th, 2025) before further assistance can be provided.

Key points

• New features for the AWS CDK may rely on APIs or functionalities only available in supported versions of Node.js.
• Critical security patches and fixes related to Node.js 14.x or 16.x will not be backported.
• Compatibility testing will no longer be performed for Node.js 16.x, making it difficult to guarantee the CDK’s behavior with that runtime.

Timeline

1. March 11, 2025 through May 30, 2025
   1. We will continue to support that arise for Node.js 14.x and 16.x during this period.
   2. Use this time to plan and test upgrades for your CDK projects to a Node.js Active Long Term Support (LTS) version.
2. May 30, 2025 and onwards
   1. The AWS CDK is officially dropping support for Node.js 14.x and 16.x.
   2. Any bug fixes or security patches will target only supported versions of Node.js (18.x, 20.x, 22.x – as of March 11th, 2025)

Version validation and update steps

• Check your current Node.js version
  • Run node -v in your environment or CI/CD pipelines to see which version of Node.js you’re currently using.
• Update your environment
  • Install or switch your runtime to Node.js using a supported version via a version manager (e.g., nvm) or by downloading an official installer from nodejs.org.
• Validate your AWS CDK projects
  • Ensure your deployment scripts, and any third-party dependencies work correctly under a supported version. Test thoroughly in non-production environments.
• Looking ahead
  • For more information on our deprecation strategy moving forward, please see this RFC, which provides more details.

Conclusion

This deprecation is part of our ongoing commitment to provide a secure, high-quality experience for AWS CDK users. By moving to a Node.js Active Long Term Support (LTS) version, you’ll benefit from improved performance, ongoing security patches, and continued AWS CDK innovations. If you have any questions or concerns about this deprecation, please reach out and open an issue in our GitHub repo.