AWS CLI

aws-cli is the official unified command line interface for Amazon Web Services. It exposes AWS services as subcommands of a single aws executable, for example aws iam list-users. It runs on Python 3.9 through 3.14, and AWS CLI v2 is distributed as installers for macOS, Linux (x86-64 and arm64), and Windows.

Credentials and settings can come from environment variables (AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID, AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY, AWS_SESSION_TOKEN), a shared credentials file (~/.aws/credentials), a config file (~/.aws/config), or an IAM Role, which is picked up automatically on EC2 instances. The aws configure command prompts for access key, secret key, default region, and default output format. Multiple named profiles are supported and selected with --profile or AWS_PROFILE. Other settings include region (--region, AWS_DEFAULT_REGION), output style (--output), a CA bundle (--ca-bundle), EC2 metadata timeout and retry count, and toggling local parameter validation.

Other documented behavior: services with a single global endpoint, such as IAM, use that endpoint automatically unless --region or --profile is given. Tab completion is available for bash, tcsh, and zsh through the aws_completer program, and it must be enabled manually. Built-in help topics are available through commands such as aws help config-vars. The tool is aimed at developers, DevOps engineers, and administrators who manage AWS resources from a terminal or scripts.

Installation

# via macOS pkg installer
https://awscli.amazonaws.com/AWSCLIV2.pkg

# via Linux x86-64 installer
https://awscli.amazonaws.com/awscli-exe-linux-x86_64.zip

# via Windows MSI installer
https://awscli.amazonaws.com/AWSCLIV2.msi