AWS CLI v2 Quick Reference

A unified tool to manage AWS services from the terminal. This guide focuses on CLI v2 features, practical examples, and advanced patterns for experienced developers.

Quick Start

# Verify installation and version
aws --version

# Interactive configuration
aws configure                    # Access keys + region + output format
aws configure sso               # IAM Identity Center (SSO) - recommended

# Verify identity
aws sts get-caller-identity     # Shows Account, UserId, ARN

# Enable auto-prompt for command discovery
aws dynamodb --cli-auto-prompt

Power User Tips

# See all waiter commands for a service
aws ec2 wait help

# Generate command skeleton (fill in the blanks)
aws lambda create-function --generate-cli-skeleton > create-fn.json

# Create CLI alias for common commands
aws configure set cli_alias.whoami "sts get-caller-identity"
aws whoami  # Now works!

# Disable pager for scripting
export AWS_PAGER=""

See Advanced Patterns for JMESPath mastery and automation tricks.

Global Options

Decision Trees

Compute & Containers

Need compute?
├── Serverless functions ────────────► Lambda (references/lambda.md)
├── Docker containers
│   ├── Managed orchestration ───────► ECS (references/ecs.md)
│   ├── Kubernetes ──────────────────► EKS (references/eks.md)
│   └── Container registry ──────────► ECR (references/ecr.md)
└── Virtual machines ────────────────► EC2 (use aws ec2 commands)

Data & Storage

Need data storage?
├── Object/blob storage ─────────────► S3 (references/s3.md)
├── NoSQL (key-value/document) ──────► DynamoDB (references/dynamodb.md)
├── Relational SQL ──────────────────► Aurora/RDS (references/aurora.md)
├── Data catalog & ETL ──────────────► Glue (references/glue.md)
└── Data warehouse ──────────────────► Redshift (aws redshift commands)

Streaming & Messaging

Need streaming/messaging?
├── Kafka-compatible ────────────────► MSK (references/msk.md)
├── Real-time streams ───────────────► Kinesis (references/kinesis.md)
├── Message queues ──────────────────► SQS (aws sqs commands)
└── Pub/Sub notifications ───────────► SNS (aws sns commands)

Security & Access

Need security/access management?
├── Users, roles, policies ──────────► IAM (references/iam-security.md)
├── Secrets & credentials ───────────► Secrets Manager/SSM (references/private-parameters.md)
├── Private network access ──────────► VPC (references/vpc-networking.md)
└── Secure tunneling ────────────────► SSM/Bastion (references/bastion-tunneling.md)

Reference File Navigation

Environment Variables

Credential Precedence

The CLI resolves credentials in this order (first match wins):

1. Command-line options (--profile, explicit credentials)
2. Environment variables (AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID, AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY)
3. Web identity token (EKS IRSA, OIDC)
4. SSO credentials (IAM Identity Center)
5. Credentials file (~/.aws/credentials)
6. Config file (~/.aws/config with credential_process)
7. Container credentials (ECS task role)
8. Instance metadata (EC2 instance profile, IMDSv2)

Common Patterns

Profile Switching

# Use specific profile for one command
aws s3 ls --profile production

# Set default profile for session
export AWS_PROFILE=production

# List configured profiles
aws configure list-profiles

Output Filtering with JMESPath

# Get specific fields
aws ec2 describe-instances \
    --query 'Reservations[*].Instances[*].[InstanceId,State.Name]' \
    --output table

# Filter running instances
aws ec2 describe-instances \
    --query 'Reservations[*].Instances[?State.Name==`running`].InstanceId' \
    --output text

Wait for Resource State

# Wait for instance to be running
aws ec2 wait instance-running --instance-ids i-1234567890abcdef0

# Wait for Lambda function update
aws lambda wait function-updated --function-name my-function

Best Practices