---
title: "Troubleshoot circular dependency issues"
section: "build-a-backend/troubleshooting"
platforms: ["angular", "javascript", "nextjs", "react", "react-native", "vue"]
gen: 2
last-updated: "2025-01-06T16:46:31.000Z"
url: "https://docs.amplify.aws/react/build-a-backend/troubleshooting/circular-dependency/"
---

When deploying a Amplify Gen 2 app, you may encounter the error message `The CloudFormation deployment failed due to circular dependency` in your backend build on Amplify Console or while running a sandbox. This error can occur due to circular dependencies between CloudFormation nested stacks or between resources in a single CloudFormation stack.

## Circular dependency error between nested stacks

If you see this error "The CloudFormation deployment failed due to circular dependency found between nested stacks [data1234ABCD, function6789XYZ]", it means that the nested stack for `data` and the nested stack for `function` have circular dependencies. E.g. if you are using the `function` as a query handler, but the `function` also needs access to the data (or `AppSync`) API, you might run into this issue. To resolve, group this `function` with other resources in the `data` stack

```ts title="amplify/functions/my-function/resource.ts"
export const queryFunction = defineFunction({
  name: 'query-function',
  resourceGroupName: 'data',
});
```

Similarly, if you are using your `function` as an auth trigger, you can group your `function` with other resources in the `auth` stack to break the circular dependency.

```ts title="amplify/functions/my-function/resource.ts"
export const preSignUpTrigger = defineFunction({
  name: 'pre-sign-up',
  resourceGroupName: 'auth',
});
```
If you are unable to resolve this error using function's `resourceGroupName` property, please [create an issue on the GitHub repository for Amplify backend](https://github.com/aws-amplify/amplify-backend/issues/new/choose)

### Circular dependency error with with a custom stack

If you are creating resources using the [AWS Cloud Development Kit (AWS CDK)](https://aws.amazon.com/cdk/) and assigning them to a custom stack, you might also run into this issue. Your error message would look like "The CloudFormation deployment failed due to circular dependency found between nested stacks [storage1234ABCD, auth5678XYZ, **MYCustomStack0123AB**]"

To resolve this, try creating your resources in the same stack as the resources you are trying to interact with. For example, if a custom resource such as `sqs` needs to interact with the underlying Amazon S3 resource created by `defineStorage`, you can create that `sqs` resource in the stack created by Amplify. You can reference the existing Amplify created stack like

```ts title="amplify/backend.ts"
const queue = new sqs.Queue(backend.storage.stack, 'MyCustomQueue');
```

## Circular dependency error between resources in the same stack

If you see this error "The CloudFormation deployment failed due to circular dependency found between resources [resource1, resource2] in a single stack", that means the resources themselves have a circular dependency in the same stack. For handling such errors, review the [AWS Blog post for handling circular dependency errors](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/infrastructure-and-automation/handling-circular-dependency-errors-in-aws-cloudformation/).