Build and Deploy a Serverless REST API in Minutes Using Chalice

Chalice is a serverless microframework that makes it simple for you to use AWS Lambda and Amazon API Gateway to build serverless apps. We’ve improved Chalice based on community feedback from GitHub, and we’re eager for you to take our latest version for a spin. Hopefully, you’ll find Chalice a fast and effective way to build serverless apps.

To help you get started with Chalice, here’s a quick five-step review:

   Step 1: Install Chalice
   Step 2: Configure credentials
   Step 3: Create a project
   Step 4: Deploy your API
   Step 5: You’re done launching a simple API. Consider adding something to your app!

Let’s dig in.

Step 1: Install Chalice.
To install Chalice, you have to use Python2.7 or 3.6, the versions Lambda supports. We recommend using a virtual environment, as follows.
(If you haven’t installed chalice before, you can do that with pip install chalice).

 $ pip install virtualenv
 $ virtualenv ~/.virtualenvs/chalice-demo
 $ source ~/.virtualenvs/chalice-demo/bin/activate

Step 2: Add credentials if you haven’t previously configured boto3 or the AWS CLI.
(If you’re already running boto3 or the AWS CLI, you’re all good. Move on to Step 3.)

If this is your first time configuring credentials for AWS, use the following.

 $ mkdir ~/.aws
 $ cat >> ~/.aws/config
 [default]
 aws_access_key_id=YOUR_ACCESS_KEY_HERE
 aws_secret_access_key=YOUR_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY
 region=YOUR_REGION (such as us-west-2, us-west-1, etc)

For more information on all the supported methods for configuring credentials, see the boto3 docs.

Step 3: Create a project using the chalice command line.
Use the new-project command to create a sample app that defines a single view.

 $ chalice new-project helloworld
 $ cd helloworld

Take a moment to check out what you’ve created. In app.py, you’ve created a sample app that defines a single view, /, that when called will return the JSON body {“hello”: “world”}.

Step 4: Deploy your App.
Alright, double-check that you’re still in your project directory – you’re ready to deploy!
From the command line, run chalice deploy.

 $ chalice deploy
 ...
 Initiating first time deployment...
 https://qxea58oupc.execute-api.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/dev/

You now have an API up and running using API Gateway and Lambda.

 $ curl https://qxea58oupc.execute-api.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/dev/
 {"hello": "world"}

Step 5: Add something to your app!
From this point, there’s a bunch of stuff you can do, including adding URL parameters, adding routing, or customizing the HTTP response. Find tutorials and examples here.

Have fun!