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LIST AND INSPECT EXISTING DYNAMODB GLOBAL TABLES

This guide shows you how to find the DynamoDB global tables that already exist in an AWS region and record one table's details in Swamp data, without changing any table.

Prerequisites

  • A Swamp repository
  • AWS credentials in the default credential chain, with permission to list and describe DynamoDB tables (see Authenticate to AWS with SSO)

Pull the extension

swamp extension pull @swamp/aws/dynamodb

The output looks like:

INF extension·pull: Pulling "@swamp/aws/dynamodb"@"2026.10.13.1"
INF extension·pull: Identity verified: "@swamp/aws/dynamodb"@"2026.10.13.1"
INF extension·pull: Pulled "@swamp/aws/dynamodb"@"2026.10.13.1"
INF extension·pull: Extracted 6 files:

Define a behavior for reading

Create a behavior named existing-tables of type @swamp/aws/dynamodb/global-table (see Create and Run a Behavior). The list and get methods do not use a table definition, but Replicas is required, so set it to the region you are inspecting:

globalArguments:
  region: us-east-1
  Replicas:
    - Region: us-east-1

To inspect another region, change both region and the Replicas entry, or create one reading behavior per region.

Do not run create, update or delete on this behavior. Those methods change tables in AWS.

List the tables in the region

swamp behavior run existing-tables list

The list method reads the DynamoDB global tables in us-east-1 from AWS and writes their resource state to Swamp data. It also accepts optional maxPages and resourceModel inputs. See the extensions reference.

Get one table's details

Pass the table name from the list as the identifier input:

swamp behavior run existing-tables get --input identifier=orders

The get method reads the full definition of the orders table from AWS and writes it to Swamp data as that table's resource state.

To read what list and get recorded, use the queries in Query and Manage Data. If you plan to manage one of these tables with Swamp from now on, copy its recorded settings into the global arguments of a behavior dedicated to that table.