AWS CLI Quick Reference Cheat Sheet
Quick reference guide for AWS CLI: S3 sync/copy, EC2 management, Lambda invoke, IAM policies, and CloudWatch.
Containers & Cloud
aws
aws-cli
cloud
The AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) is a unified tool to manage your Amazon Web Services resources from the command line.
Configuration & Credentials
Table
| Command | Action / Purpose |
|---|---|
aws configure | Interactively configure Access Key, Secret Key, region, and format |
aws configure list | Display currently active credentials and configuration source |
aws sts get-caller-identity | Print authenticated IAM principal identity (Account, UserId, ARN) |
Amazon S3 Operations
bash
# List all S3 buckets in account
aws s3 ls
# List contents of specific bucket
aws s3 ls s3://my-app-bucket/prefix/
# Sync local directory to S3 bucket (delete remote extra files)
aws s3 sync ./dist s3://my-app-bucket/ --delete
# Copy file with explicit Content-Type header
aws s3 cp image.png s3://my-app-bucket/assets/image.png --content-type "image/png"
# Remove non-empty bucket recursively
aws s3 rb s3://my-app-bucket/ --force
Amazon EC2 Management
bash
# Describe running instances with output filter
aws ec2 describe-instances \
--filters "Name=instance-state-name,Values=running" \
--query "Reservations[*].Instances[*].[InstanceId,PublicIpAddress,Tags[?Key=='Name'].Value|[0]]" \
--output table
# Start / Stop EC2 instance
aws ec2 start-instances --instance-ids i-0123456789abcdef0
aws ec2 stop-instances --instance-ids i-0123456789abcdef0
AWS Lambda & CloudWatch Logs
Table
| Action | Command Example |
|---|---|
| Invoke Lambda Function | aws lambda invoke --function-name my-func --cli-binary-format raw-in-base64-out --payload '{"key":"val"}' out.json |
| Tail CloudWatch Log Stream | aws logs tail /aws/lambda/my-func --follow --format short |
| Get SSM Parameter Value | aws ssm get-parameter --name "/app/prod/db_pass" --with-decryption |
Common Pitfalls & Tips
[!WARNING] In AWS CLI v2, binary payloads for
aws lambda invokemust be base64-encoded or called with--cli-binary-format raw-in-base64-out.
[!TIP] Use
--querywith JMESPath expressions and--output json|table|textto extract precise fields directly from AWS CLI responses.