AWS SAM CLI adds Finch support, expanding local development tool options for serverless applications

AWS Serverless Application Model Command Line Interface (SAM CLI) now supports Finch as an alternative to Docker for local development and testing of serverless applications. This gives developers greater flexibility in choosing their preferred local development environment when working with SAM CLI to build and test their serverless applications.

Developers building serverless applications spend significant time in their local development environments. SAM CLI is a command-line tool for local development and testing of serverless applications. It allows you to build, test, debug, and package your serverless applications locally before deploying to AWS Cloud. To provide the local development and testing environment for your applications, SAM CLI uses a tool that can run containers on your local device. Previously, SAM CLI only supported Docker as the tool for running containers locally. Starting today, SAM CLI also supports Finch as a container development tool. Finch is an open-source tool, developed and supported by AWS, for local container development. This means you can now choose between Docker and Finch as your preferred container tool for local development when working with SAM CLI.

You can use SAM CLI to invoke Lambda functions locally, test API endpoints, and debug your serverless applications with the same experience you would have in the AWS Cloud. With Finch support, SAM CLI now automatically detects and uses Finch as the container development tool when Docker is not available. You can also set Finch as your preferred container tool for SAM CLI. This new feature supports all core SAM CLI commands including sam build, sam local invoke, sam local start-api, and sam local start-lambda.

To learn more about using SAM CLI with Finch, visit the SAM CLI developer guide.