aws/aws-cli

★ 16,957PythonAudience · ops devopsComplexity · 2/5Setup · moderate

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((aws-cli))
    What it does
      Manage AWS services
      Scriptable automation
      Terminal interface
    Auth setup
      aws configure
      Credentials file
      IAM Roles on EC2
    Key services
      S3 file storage
      EC2 compute
      Lambda functions
    Use cases
      CI/CD pipelines
      Infrastructure scripts
      Account management

mindmap root((aws-cli)) What it does Manage AWS services Scriptable automation Terminal interface Auth setup aws configure Credentials file IAM Roles on EC2 Key services S3 file storage EC2 compute Lambda functions Use cases CI/CD pipelines Infrastructure scripts Account management

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Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Deploy and manage cloud infrastructure from a shell script or CI pipeline instead of clicking through the web console

USE CASE 2

Sync files between your local machine and S3 buckets with a single command

USE CASE 3

Manage IAM users, roles, and permissions from the terminal

USE CASE 4

Automate repetitive AWS tasks by scripting aws commands in bash

Tech stack

Pythonpip

Getting it running

Difficulty · moderate Time to first run · 30min

Requires an AWS account and IAM access key credentials before any commands will work, use aws configure to set them up.

License type not specified in the explanation.

In plain English

The AWS CLI is the official command-line tool for Amazon Web Services, the cloud platform that powers a huge chunk of the internet. Instead of clicking through the AWS web console to create servers, upload files, change settings, or read logs, you type commands in a terminal and AWS responds. Anything you can do in the console, and a lot you cannot, you can usually do here, in a form that is scriptable and easy to automate. A command always follows the pattern aws, then the AWS service you want (s3, ec2, lambda, and so on), then a subcommand, then options. For example, aws s3 ls lists the files in your S3 buckets. Built-in help is available at every level by appending help to a command. Before using it you have to give it credentials so AWS knows who you are. The quickest way is aws configure, which prompts for an access key, secret key, default region, and output format. You can also keep credentials in environment variables, a shared credentials file at ~/.aws/credentials, a config file at ~/.aws/config (both supporting multiple named profiles you switch between with --profile), or, when running on an EC2 server, an IAM Role that AWS attaches automatically. The tool is written in Python and is installed with pip (python -m pip install awscli) or a bundled installer on Linux/macOS, or an MSI on Windows. This README is for version 1, which enters maintenance mode on July 15, 2026, the maintainers recommend migrating to AWS CLI v2 on a separate branch. Reach for the AWS CLI whenever you want to talk to AWS from a terminal or shell script: deploying infrastructure, syncing files to S3, managing IAM, running automation in CI pipelines, or poking around an account.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1

Write a bash script using the AWS CLI to sync a local build folder to an S3 bucket and then invalidate a CloudFront distribution cache

Prompt 2

Show me how to configure multiple AWS CLI profiles for different accounts and switch between them using --profile

Prompt 3

Give me an AWS CLI command to list all running EC2 instances with their instance types and public IP addresses

Prompt 4

How do I use the AWS CLI to create a Lambda function, upload my code zip, and invoke it for testing?

Prompt 5

Write AWS CLI commands to create an IAM user with S3 read-only access and generate access keys

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