[core] Unable to Synthesize CDK in 1.57: Assets must be defined indirectly within a "Stage" or an "App" scope

After upgrading to 1.57 I get the following error when trying to synthesize my application:

unable to determine cloud assembly output directory. Assets must be defined indirectly within a "Stage" or an "App" scope

I tried specifying outdir in my App as well as my Stage, but neither works (in App throws same error, in Stage throws nested stage error).

Reproduction Steps

I haven’t quite nailed down the triggering code, but here’s my general setup:

export interface MyStackProps extends cdk.StackProps {
    source: s3deploy.ISource;
    code: lambda.Code;
}

class MyStack extends cdk.Stack {
    constructor(scope: cdk.Construct, props: MyStackProps) {
        super(scope, "MyStack", props)

       ...

        new lambda.Function(this, "ApiHandler", {
          code: props.code,
        });

        new s3deploy.BucketDeployment(this, "DeployWithInvalidation", {
          sources: [props.source],
          destinationBucket: someDistributionBucket,
          distribution: someDistribution,
        });
    }
}

class MyStage extends cdk.Stage {
  constructor(scope: cdk.Construct, id: string, props?: cdk.StageProps) {
    super(scope, id, props);

    new MyStack(this, {
       // Changing these values to `{} as any` still throws the same scope error
        code:  lambda.Code.fromAsset("../api/dist"),
        source: s3deploy.Source.asset("../app/build"),
    });
  }
}

class PipelineStack extends cdk.Stack {
  constructor(scope: cdk.Construct, id: string, props?: cdk.StackProps) {
    super(scope, id, props);

    const sourceArtifact = new codepipeline.Artifact();
    const cloudAssemblyArtifact = new codepipeline.Artifact("CloudAssemblyArtifact");

    const pipeline = new pipelines.CdkPipeline(this, "Pipeline", {
      pipelineName: "MyAppPipeline",
      cloudAssemblyArtifact,

      sourceAction: new codepipeline_actions.GitHubSourceAction({...}),

      synthAction: pipelines.SimpleSynthAction.standardNpmSynth({
        sourceArtifact,
        cloudAssemblyArtifact,
        ...
      }),
    });

    pipeline.addApplicationStage(new MyStage(this, "Prod"));
  }
}

const app = new cdk.App();
new PipelineStack(app, "PipelineStack");

What did you expect to happen?

The CDK app synthesizes correctly.

What actually happened?

Synthesis fails with the message unable to determine cloud assembly output directory. Assets must be defined indirectly within a "Stage" or an "App" scope

Environment

• CLI Version : 1.57
• Framework Version: 1.57
• Node.js Version: v14.3.0
• OS : Ubuntu (on WSL2)
• Language (Version): TypeScript (3.9.7)

Other

Here’s where the error is being thrown

---

This is 🐛 Bug Report

[GCSDC]

I had the same issue and fixed it with these steps:

1. Set version of all cdk related packages to “ˆ1.59.0”

"devDependencies": {
  "@aws-cdk/assert": "^1.59.0",
  "@types/jest": "^25.2.1",
  "@types/node": "10.17.5",
  "aws-cdk": "^1.59.0",
  "jest": "^25.5.0",
  "ts-jest": "^25.3.1",
  "ts-node": "^8.1.0",
  "typescript": "~3.7.2"
},
"dependencies": {
  "@aws-cdk/aws-apigateway": "^1.59.0",
  "@aws-cdk/aws-codepipeline": "^1.59.0",
  "@aws-cdk/aws-codepipeline-actions": "^1.59.0",
  "@aws-cdk/aws-lambda": "^1.59.0",
  "@aws-cdk/core": "^1.59.0",
  "@aws-cdk/pipelines": "^1.59.0",
  "@types/aws-lambda": "^8.10.61",
  "source-map-support": "^0.5.16"
}

1. Delete both node_modules and package-lock.json

2. Run npm install

[fongie]

I had this problem in v1.58.0 when following the CDK Pipelines blog post. I have a local npm package reference (file:…/etc) as well. Removing the local package did not fix it, but downgrading to pinned 1.56.0 fixed it for me, even when reintroducing the local package.

Maybe this issue should be reopened?