EventBridge Pipes: Point-to-Point Event Streaming

EventBridge Pipes: Point-to-Point Event Streaming Without Code

Before EventBridge Pipes, connecting event sources to targets required Lambda functions for transformation. Now you can stream events directly with built-in filtering and transformation—no code required for common patterns.

What EventBridge Pipes Does

Simple Pipe: DynamoDB to EventBridge

# CloudFormation: Stream DynamoDB changes to EventBridge
Resources:
  OrderPipe:
    Type: AWS::Pipes::Pipe
    Properties:
      Name: orders-to-eventbridge
      Source: !GetAtt OrdersTable.StreamArn
      SourceParameters:
        DynamoDBStreamParameters:
          StartingPosition: LATEST
          BatchSize: 10
      # Filter for new orders only
      FilterCriteria:
        Filters:
          - Pattern: '{"eventName": ["INSERT"]}'
      Target: !Sub arn:aws:events:${AWS::Region}:${AWS::AccountId}:event-bus/orders
      TargetParameters:
        EventBridgeEventBusParameters:
          DetailType: OrderCreated
          Source: orders.dynamodb

Pipe with Transformation

# Transform SQS messages before sending to API
Resources:
  WebhookPipe:
    Type: AWS::Pipes::Pipe
    Properties:
      Name: sqs-to-webhook
      Source: !GetAtt IncomingQueue.Arn
      SourceParameters:
        SqsQueueParameters:
          BatchSize: 1
      # Built-in input transformation (no Lambda needed)
      TargetParameters:
        InputTemplate: |
          {
            "orderId": <$.body.orderId>,
            "customer": <$.body.customerEmail>,
            "timestamp": <$.attributes.SentTimestamp>
          }
        HttpParameters:
          HeaderParameters:
            Content-Type: application/json
      Target: !Sub arn:aws:execute-api:${AWS::Region}:${AWS::AccountId}:${WebhookApi}/*

Common Patterns

Pipes vs Lambda vs EventBridge Rules

EventBridge Pipes fills the gap between “simple rule” and “custom Lambda”. For straightforward integrations, it’s the right choice.