aws-cli

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Expert guidance on AWS CLI v2 for managing AWS services from the command line. Integrates with the dash monitoring dashboard. Use when developers mention: (1) aws command or AWS CLI, (2) CloudWatch metrics or alarms, (3) ECS/EC2/Lambda service discovery, (4) S3 bucket operations, (5) Cost Explorer queries, (6) Security Hub or GuardDuty findings, (7) configuring AWS credentials or profiles, (8) dash AWS monitoring setup.

dl-alexandre By dl-alexandre schedule Updated 1/27/2026
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name: aws-cli description: Expert guidance on AWS CLI v2 for managing AWS services from the command line. Integrates with the dash monitoring dashboard. Use when developers mention: (1) aws command or AWS CLI, (2) CloudWatch metrics or alarms, (3) ECS/EC2/Lambda service discovery, (4) S3 bucket operations, (5) Cost Explorer queries, (6) Security Hub or GuardDuty findings, (7) configuring AWS credentials or profiles, (8) dash AWS monitoring setup.

AWS CLI v2

Overview

The AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) is a unified tool to manage AWS services from the command line. Version 2 is the current major version with improved installers, new configuration options, and native support for AWS IAM Identity Center (SSO).

Official Documentation: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/userguide/

Configuration

Quick Setup

aws configure
# AWS Access Key ID: AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE
# AWS Secret Access Key: wJalrXUtnFEMI/K7MDENG/bPxRfiCYEXAMPLEKEY
# Default region name: us-west-2
# Default output format: json

Named Profiles

aws configure --profile production
aws configure --profile development

# Use a profile
aws s3 ls --profile production
export AWS_PROFILE=production

Configuration Files

# ~/.aws/credentials
[default]
aws_access_key_id = AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE
aws_secret_access_key = wJalrXUtnFEMI/K7MDENG/bPxRfiCYEXAMPLEKEY

[production]
aws_access_key_id = AKIAI44QH8DHBEXAMPLE
aws_secret_access_key = je7MtGbClwBF/2Zp9Utk/h3yCo8nvbEXAMPLEKEY

# ~/.aws/config
[default]
region = us-west-2
output = json

[profile production]
region = us-east-1
output = json

[profile sso-user]
sso_start_url = https://my-sso-portal.awsapps.com/start
sso_region = us-east-1
sso_account_id = 123456789012
sso_role_name = ReadOnlyAccess
region = us-west-2

Environment Variables

export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE
export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=wJalrXUtnFEMI/K7MDENG/bPxRfiCYEXAMPLEKEY
export AWS_DEFAULT_REGION=us-west-2
export AWS_PROFILE=production
export AWS_SESSION_TOKEN=...  # For temporary credentials

IAM Identity Center (SSO)

aws configure sso
# SSO session name: my-sso
# SSO start URL: https://my-sso-portal.awsapps.com/start
# SSO region: us-east-1
# SSO registration scopes: sso:account:access

# Login to SSO
aws sso login --profile my-sso-profile

Core Commands

Identity and Access

aws sts get-caller-identity                    # Who am I?
aws iam list-users                             # List IAM users
aws iam get-user --user-name alice             # Get user details
aws iam list-roles                             # List IAM roles

EC2

aws ec2 describe-instances                     # List all instances
aws ec2 describe-instances --filters "Name=instance-state-name,Values=running"
aws ec2 describe-instances --query 'Reservations[*].Instances[*].[InstanceId,State.Name,Tags[?Key==`Name`].Value|[0]]' --output table
aws ec2 start-instances --instance-ids i-1234567890abcdef0
aws ec2 stop-instances --instance-ids i-1234567890abcdef0
aws ec2 describe-regions --all-regions         # List all regions

ECS

aws ecs list-clusters                          # List ECS clusters
aws ecs list-services --cluster my-cluster     # List services in cluster
aws ecs describe-services --cluster my-cluster --services my-service
aws ecs list-tasks --cluster my-cluster --service-name my-service
aws ecs describe-tasks --cluster my-cluster --tasks <task-arn>
aws ecs update-service --cluster my-cluster --service my-service --force-new-deployment

Lambda

aws lambda list-functions                      # List all functions
aws lambda get-function --function-name my-function
aws lambda invoke --function-name my-function output.json
aws lambda update-function-code --function-name my-function --zip-file fileb://function.zip

S3

aws s3 ls                                      # List buckets
aws s3 ls s3://my-bucket/                      # List bucket contents
aws s3 cp file.txt s3://my-bucket/             # Upload file
aws s3 cp s3://my-bucket/file.txt ./           # Download file
aws s3 sync ./local-dir s3://my-bucket/prefix/ # Sync directory
aws s3 rm s3://my-bucket/file.txt              # Delete file
aws s3 rb s3://my-bucket --force               # Delete bucket
aws s3api get-bucket-location --bucket my-bucket

CloudWatch

# List alarms
aws cloudwatch describe-alarms
aws cloudwatch describe-alarms --state-value ALARM

# Get metrics
aws cloudwatch get-metric-statistics \
  --namespace AWS/EC2 \
  --metric-name CPUUtilization \
  --dimensions Name=InstanceId,Value=i-1234567890abcdef0 \
  --start-time 2024-01-01T00:00:00Z \
  --end-time 2024-01-02T00:00:00Z \
  --period 3600 \
  --statistics Average

# List metrics
aws cloudwatch list-metrics --namespace AWS/ECS

# Put metric data
aws cloudwatch put-metric-data \
  --namespace "Custom/MyApp" \
  --metric-name "RequestCount" \
  --value 100

RDS

aws rds describe-db-instances                  # List RDS instances
aws rds describe-db-clusters                   # List Aurora clusters
aws rds describe-db-snapshots                  # List snapshots
aws rds create-db-snapshot --db-instance-identifier mydb --db-snapshot-identifier mydb-snapshot

Cost Explorer

aws ce get-cost-and-usage \
  --time-period Start=2024-01-01,End=2024-01-31 \
  --granularity DAILY \
  --metrics "BlendedCost" "UnblendedCost" \
  --group-by Type=DIMENSION,Key=SERVICE

Security Hub

aws securityhub get-findings --max-results 100
aws securityhub get-findings --filters '{"SeverityNormalized": [{"Gte": 70}]}'
aws securityhub describe-standards

GuardDuty

aws guardduty list-detectors
aws guardduty list-findings --detector-id <detector-id>
aws guardduty get-findings --detector-id <detector-id> --finding-ids <finding-id>

Elastic Load Balancing

aws elbv2 describe-load-balancers              # List ALB/NLB
aws elbv2 describe-target-groups --load-balancer-arn <arn>
aws elbv2 describe-target-health --target-group-arn <arn>

Elastic Beanstalk

aws elasticbeanstalk describe-environments
aws elasticbeanstalk describe-environment-health --environment-name my-env --attribute-names All

Integration with Dash Monitoring

The dash monitoring dashboard uses AWS CLI for service discovery and metrics collection. Configuration is in config/aws-monitoring.yaml.

Configuration Example

# config/aws-monitoring.yaml
aws:
  region: "us-west-2"
  credentials:
    use_iam_role: true      # Use EC2 instance role or default chain
    profile: ""             # Or specify a named profile
    access_key_id: ""       # Or explicit credentials
    secret_access_key: ""

service_stability:
  discovery:
    enabled: true
    use_aws_cli: true       # Enable CLI-based discovery
    clusters:
      - name: "production-cluster"
        region: "us-west-2"
    ec2_filters:
      - name: "tag:Environment"
        values: ["prod"]
    discover_elastic_beanstalk: true
    discover_lambda: true

How Dash Uses AWS CLI

The AWSCLIExecutor in dash executes AWS CLI commands for:

  1. Service Discovery: ECS services, EC2 instances, Lambda functions, Elastic Beanstalk environments
  2. CloudWatch Metrics: CPU, memory, request counts, latency
  3. Alarms: CloudWatch alarm states
  4. Cost Data: Daily/monthly cost breakdowns
  5. Security: Security Hub findings, GuardDuty detections
  6. Load Balancer Health: Target group health status

Verifying CLI Access for Dash

# Test identity
aws sts get-caller-identity

# Test ECS discovery
aws ecs list-clusters
aws ecs list-services --cluster production-cluster

# Test CloudWatch access
aws cloudwatch describe-alarms --state-value ALARM

# Test Cost Explorer (requires activation)
aws ce get-cost-and-usage \
  --time-period Start=$(date -v-7d +%Y-%m-%d),End=$(date +%Y-%m-%d) \
  --granularity DAILY \
  --metrics BlendedCost

Required IAM Permissions for Dash

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "ecs:ListClusters",
        "ecs:ListServices",
        "ecs:DescribeServices",
        "ecs:ListTasks",
        "ecs:DescribeTasks",
        "ec2:DescribeInstances",
        "ec2:DescribeRegions",
        "lambda:ListFunctions",
        "lambda:GetFunction",
        "elasticbeanstalk:DescribeEnvironments",
        "elasticbeanstalk:DescribeEnvironmentHealth",
        "cloudwatch:DescribeAlarms",
        "cloudwatch:GetMetricData",
        "cloudwatch:GetMetricStatistics",
        "cloudwatch:ListMetrics",
        "rds:DescribeDBInstances",
        "rds:DescribeDBClusters",
        "elasticloadbalancing:DescribeLoadBalancers",
        "elasticloadbalancing:DescribeTargetGroups",
        "elasticloadbalancing:DescribeTargetHealth",
        "s3:ListAllMyBuckets",
        "s3:GetBucketLocation",
        "ce:GetCostAndUsage",
        "securityhub:GetFindings",
        "guardduty:ListDetectors",
        "guardduty:ListFindings",
        "guardduty:GetFindings",
        "sts:GetCallerIdentity"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    }
  ]
}

Common Workflows

Service Discovery Script

# Discover all running services across ECS clusters
for cluster in $(aws ecs list-clusters --query 'clusterArns[*]' --output text); do
  echo "Cluster: $cluster"
  aws ecs list-services --cluster "$cluster" --query 'serviceArns[*]' --output table
done

Health Check All Load Balancers

for lb in $(aws elbv2 describe-load-balancers --query 'LoadBalancers[*].LoadBalancerArn' --output text); do
  echo "Load Balancer: $lb"
  for tg in $(aws elbv2 describe-target-groups --load-balancer-arn "$lb" --query 'TargetGroups[*].TargetGroupArn' --output text); do
    aws elbv2 describe-target-health --target-group-arn "$tg" \
      --query 'TargetHealthDescriptions[*].[Target.Id,TargetHealth.State]' --output table
  done
done

Export CloudWatch Metrics

aws cloudwatch get-metric-data \
  --metric-data-queries file://queries.json \
  --start-time $(date -v-1H -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ) \
  --end-time $(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ) \
  --output json > metrics.json

Cost Report

aws ce get-cost-and-usage \
  --time-period Start=$(date -v-30d +%Y-%m-%d),End=$(date +%Y-%m-%d) \
  --granularity MONTHLY \
  --metrics "BlendedCost" \
  --group-by Type=DIMENSION,Key=SERVICE \
  --query 'ResultsByTime[*].Groups[*].[Keys[0],Metrics.BlendedCost.Amount]' \
  --output table

Output Formats

aws ec2 describe-instances --output json       # JSON (default)
aws ec2 describe-instances --output text       # Tab-separated
aws ec2 describe-instances --output table      # ASCII table
aws ec2 describe-instances --output yaml       # YAML

JMESPath Queries

# Get instance IDs only
aws ec2 describe-instances --query 'Reservations[*].Instances[*].InstanceId' --output text

# Filter and format
aws ec2 describe-instances \
  --query 'Reservations[*].Instances[*].[InstanceId,State.Name,Tags[?Key==`Name`].Value|[0]]' \
  --output table

# Complex filtering
aws ec2 describe-instances \
  --query 'Reservations[*].Instances[?State.Name==`running`].[InstanceId,InstanceType]' \
  --output table

Troubleshooting

Credential Issues

# Check current identity
aws sts get-caller-identity

# Debug credential chain
AWS_DEBUG=1 aws sts get-caller-identity

# Clear cached credentials
rm -rf ~/.aws/cli/cache/*

Region Issues

# Check configured region
aws configure get region

# Override region
aws ec2 describe-instances --region us-east-1

Timeout Issues

# Increase timeout
aws configure set cli_read_timeout 60
aws configure set cli_connect_timeout 30

# Or via environment
export AWS_READ_TIMEOUT=60
export AWS_CONNECT_TIMEOUT=30

Rate Limiting

# Configure retry mode
aws configure set retry_mode adaptive
aws configure set max_attempts 10

Debug Mode

aws ec2 describe-instances --debug 2>&1 | head -100

Helper Scripts

This skill includes Python helper scripts in the scripts/ directory. Run with uv run:

aws_check.py - Verify AWS CLI Setup

uv run ~/.claude/skills/aws-cli/scripts/aws_check.py              # Full diagnostic
uv run ~/.claude/skills/aws-cli/scripts/aws_check.py identity     # Check credentials
uv run ~/.claude/skills/aws-cli/scripts/aws_check.py permissions  # Test dash-required permissions
uv run ~/.claude/skills/aws-cli/scripts/aws_check.py services     # Discover AWS services
uv run ~/.claude/skills/aws-cli/scripts/aws_check.py config       # Show AWS configuration

aws_metrics.py - CloudWatch Metrics Helper

uv run ~/.claude/skills/aws-cli/scripts/aws_metrics.py list AWS/ECS
uv run ~/.claude/skills/aws-cli/scripts/aws_metrics.py get CPUUtilization --namespace AWS/EC2 --dimension InstanceId=i-1234567890
uv run ~/.claude/skills/aws-cli/scripts/aws_metrics.py alarms ALARM
uv run ~/.claude/skills/aws-cli/scripts/aws_metrics.py ecs my-cluster my-service --hours 24
uv run ~/.claude/skills/aws-cli/scripts/aws_metrics.py ec2 i-1234567890abcdef0 --hours 6
uv run ~/.claude/skills/aws-cli/scripts/aws_metrics.py rds mydb-instance --hours 12
uv run ~/.claude/skills/aws-cli/scripts/aws_metrics.py export metrics.json --hours 24

Resources

Installation Reference

macOS

# Homebrew (recommended)
brew install awscli

# Official installer
curl "https://awscli.amazonaws.com/AWSCLIV2.pkg" -o "AWSCLIV2.pkg"
sudo installer -pkg AWSCLIV2.pkg -target /

Linux

# x86_64
curl "https://awscli.amazonaws.com/awscli-exe-linux-x86_64.zip" -o "awscliv2.zip"
unzip awscliv2.zip
sudo ./aws/install

# ARM64
curl "https://awscli.amazonaws.com/awscli-exe-linux-aarch64.zip" -o "awscliv2.zip"
unzip awscliv2.zip
sudo ./aws/install

Docker

docker run --rm -it amazon/aws-cli --version
docker run --rm -it -v ~/.aws:/root/.aws amazon/aws-cli s3 ls

Verify Installation

aws --version
# aws-cli/2.x.x Python/3.x.x Darwin/23.x.x source/arm64
Install via CLI
npx skills add https://github.com/dl-alexandre/cli-installer-toolkit --skill aws-cli
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