AWS CLI Cheatsheet

Quick reference for AWS CLI commands covering EC2, S3, IAM, Lambda, CloudFormation, RDS, ECS, and general operations

56 commands

aws configure

Configure AWS CLI credentials and default settings

aws configure

aws configure list

List current configuration values

aws configure list

aws sts get-caller-identity

Check IAM identity of current credentials

aws sts get-caller-identity

aws --profile

Execute with a named profile

aws --profile production s3 ls

aws --region

Execute command with specified region

aws --region us-west-2 ec2 describe-instances

aws --output

Specify output format (json/table/text/yaml)

aws ec2 describe-instances --output table

aws --query

Filter output with JMESPath query

aws ec2 describe-instances --query 'Reservations[].Instances[].InstanceId'

aws ec2 describe-instances

Describe EC2 instances

aws ec2 describe-instances --filters 'Name=instance-state-name,Values=running'

aws ec2 run-instances

Launch a new EC2 instance

aws ec2 run-instances --image-id ami-0abcdef --instance-type t3.micro --key-name mykey

aws ec2 start-instances

Start stopped EC2 instances

aws ec2 start-instances --instance-ids i-1234567890abcdef0

aws ec2 stop-instances

Stop EC2 instances

aws ec2 stop-instances --instance-ids i-1234567890abcdef0

aws ec2 terminate-instances

Terminate (delete) EC2 instances

aws ec2 terminate-instances --instance-ids i-1234567890abcdef0

aws ec2 describe-security-groups

Describe security groups

aws ec2 describe-security-groups --group-ids sg-12345678

aws ec2 create-key-pair

Create a key pair

aws ec2 create-key-pair --key-name mykey --query 'KeyMaterial' --output text > mykey.pem

aws ec2 describe-vpcs

Describe VPCs

aws ec2 describe-vpcs

aws ec2 describe-subnets

Describe subnets

aws ec2 describe-subnets --filters 'Name=vpc-id,Values=vpc-12345'

aws ec2 create-image

Create AMI from EC2 instance

aws ec2 create-image --instance-id i-123456 --name 'backup-image'

aws s3 ls

List S3 buckets or objects

aws s3 ls s3://my-bucket/prefix/

aws s3 cp

Copy files to/from S3

aws s3 cp file.txt s3://my-bucket/

aws s3 sync

Sync directory with S3 bucket

aws s3 sync ./dist s3://my-bucket/ --delete

aws s3 mb

Create S3 bucket

aws s3 mb s3://my-new-bucket --region ap-northeast-1

aws s3 rb

Remove S3 bucket

aws s3 rb s3://my-bucket --force

aws s3 rm

Remove S3 objects

aws s3 rm s3://my-bucket/file.txt

aws s3 presign

Generate presigned URL for S3 object

aws s3 presign s3://my-bucket/file.zip --expires-in 3600

aws s3api put-bucket-policy

Set S3 bucket policy

aws s3api put-bucket-policy --bucket my-bucket --policy file://policy.json

aws iam create-user

Create IAM user

aws iam create-user --user-name newuser

aws iam list-users

List IAM users

aws iam list-users

aws iam create-role

Create IAM role

aws iam create-role --role-name MyRole --assume-role-policy-document file://trust.json

aws iam attach-role-policy

Attach policy to IAM role

aws iam attach-role-policy --role-name MyRole --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/ReadOnlyAccess

aws iam create-access-key

Create access key

aws iam create-access-key --user-name myuser

aws iam list-policies

List IAM policies

aws iam list-policies --scope Local

aws sts assume-role

Assume an IAM role

aws sts assume-role --role-arn arn:aws:iam::123456:role/MyRole --role-session-name session1

aws lambda list-functions

List Lambda functions

aws lambda list-functions --region ap-northeast-1

aws lambda invoke

Invoke a Lambda function

aws lambda invoke --function-name myFunc --payload '{"key":"val"}' output.json

aws lambda create-function

Create a Lambda function

aws lambda create-function --function-name myFunc --runtime nodejs20.x --handler index.handler --zip-file fileb://func.zip --role arn:aws:iam::123:role/lambda-role

aws lambda update-function-code

Update Lambda function code

aws lambda update-function-code --function-name myFunc --zip-file fileb://func.zip

aws lambda get-function

Get Lambda function configuration

aws lambda get-function --function-name myFunc

aws lambda delete-function

Delete a Lambda function

aws lambda delete-function --function-name myFunc

aws cloudformation create-stack

Create CloudFormation stack

aws cloudformation create-stack --stack-name mystack --template-body file://template.yaml

aws cloudformation update-stack

Update CloudFormation stack

aws cloudformation update-stack --stack-name mystack --template-body file://template.yaml

aws cloudformation delete-stack

Delete CloudFormation stack

aws cloudformation delete-stack --stack-name mystack

aws cloudformation describe-stacks

Describe stacks

aws cloudformation describe-stacks --stack-name mystack

aws cloudformation list-stacks

List stacks

aws cloudformation list-stacks --stack-status-filter CREATE_COMPLETE

aws cloudformation validate-template

Validate template syntax

aws cloudformation validate-template --template-body file://template.yaml

aws rds describe-db-instances

Describe RDS instances

aws rds describe-db-instances

aws rds create-db-instance

Create RDS instance

aws rds create-db-instance --db-instance-identifier mydb --db-instance-class db.t3.micro --engine mysql --master-username admin --master-user-password pass

aws rds create-db-snapshot

Create RDS snapshot

aws rds create-db-snapshot --db-instance-identifier mydb --db-snapshot-identifier mydb-snap

aws rds delete-db-instance

Delete RDS instance

aws rds delete-db-instance --db-instance-identifier mydb --skip-final-snapshot

aws rds modify-db-instance

Modify RDS instance configuration

aws rds modify-db-instance --db-instance-identifier mydb --db-instance-class db.t3.medium

aws rds describe-db-clusters

Describe Aurora clusters

aws rds describe-db-clusters

aws ecs list-clusters

List ECS clusters

aws ecs list-clusters

aws ecs list-services

List ECS services

aws ecs list-services --cluster my-cluster

aws ecs describe-tasks

Describe ECS tasks

aws ecs describe-tasks --cluster my-cluster --tasks task-id

aws ecs create-service

Create ECS service

aws ecs create-service --cluster my-cluster --service-name my-svc --task-definition my-task:1 --desired-count 2

aws ecs update-service

Update (deploy) ECS service

aws ecs update-service --cluster my-cluster --service my-svc --force-new-deployment

aws ecs register-task-definition

aws ecs register-task-definition --cli-input-json file://task-def.json