diff --git a/examples/demo-localstack/stacks/deploy/footbar.yaml b/examples/demo-localstack/stacks/deploy/footbar.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e69de29bb
diff --git a/internal/exec/stack_processor_utils.go b/internal/exec/stack_processor_utils.go
index b6c6f4d0e..b616e2348 100644
--- a/internal/exec/stack_processor_utils.go
+++ b/internal/exec/stack_processor_utils.go
@@ -199,6 +199,9 @@ func ProcessYAMLConfigFile(
 			return nil, nil, nil, err
 		}
 	}
+	if stackYamlConfig == "" {
+		return map[string]any{}, map[string]map[string]any{}, map[string]any{}, nil
+	}
 
 	stackManifestTemplatesProcessed := stackYamlConfig
 	stackManifestTemplatesErrorMessage := ""