Skip to content

aws-sso Commands

Common Flags

  • --help, -h -- Builtin and context sensitive help
  • --browser <path>, -b -- Override default browser to open AWS SSO URL ($AWS_SSO_BROWSER)
  • --config <file> -- Specify alternative config file ($AWS_SSO_CONFIG)
  • --level <level>, -L -- Change default log level: [error|warn|info|debug|trace]
  • --lines -- Print file number with logs
  • --sso <name>, -S -- Specify non-default AWS SSO instance to use ($AWS_SSO)

Commands

cache

AWS SSO CLI caches information about your AWS Accounts, Roles and Tags for better perfomance. By default it will refresh this information after 24 hours, but you can force this data to be refreshed immediately.

Cache data is also automatically updated anytime the config.yaml file is modified.

Flags:

  • --no-config-check -- Disable automatic updating of ~/.aws/config
  • --threads <int> -- Number of threads to use with AWS (default: 5)

console

Console generates a URL which will grant you access to the AWS Console in your web browser. The URL can be sent directly to the browser (default), printed in the terminal or copied into the Copy & Paste buffer of your computer.

Note: Normally, you can only have a single active AWS Console session at a time, but multiple session are supported via the open-url-in-container configuration option.

Flags:

  • --duration <minutes>, -d -- AWS Session duration in minutes (default 60)
  • --prompt, -P -- Force interactive prompt to select role
  • --region <region>, -r -- Specify the $AWS_DEFAULT_REGION to use
  • --arn <arn>, -a -- ARN of role to assume ($AWS_SSO_ROLE_ARN)
  • --account <account>, -A -- AWS AccountID of role to assume ($AWS_SSO_ACCOUNT_ID)
  • --role <role>, -R -- Name of AWS Role to assume (requires --account) ($AWS_SSO_ROLE_NAME)
  • --profile <profile>, -p -- Name of AWS Profile to assume
  • --url-action, -u -- How to handle URLs for your SSO provider
  • --sts-refresh -- Force refresh of STS Token Credentials

The generated URL is good for 15 minutes after it is created.

The common flag --url-action is used both for AWS SSO authentication as well as what to do with the resulting URL from the console command.

Priority is given to:

  • --prompt
  • --profile
  • --arn ($AWS_SSO_ROLE_ARN)
  • --account ($AWS_SSO_ACCOUNT_ID) and --role ($AWS_SSO_ROLE_NAME)
  • AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID, AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY, and AWS_SESSION_TOKEN environment variables
  • AWS_PROFILE environment variable (works with both SSO and static profiles)
  • Prompt user interactively

credentials

Generate static credentials in the format for ~/.aws/credentials.

This command will expose your temporary AWS IAM credentials in clear text which can be a security issue, and is not recommended except for cases where going through the AWS Identity Center web-based authentication workflow is not possible. The most common example of this would be integrating with Docker and needing multiple IAM Roles. Most use cases are better served by using the setup-profiles command or passing in IAM credentials via environment variables.

Flags:

  • --file <path>, -f -- Specify the file to generate. Default is to print to STDOUT ($AWS_SHARED_CREDENTIALS_FILE).
  • --append, -a -- Append to the file instead of overwriting it.
  • --profile <profile>,..., -p -- One or more profiles to include in the output.
  • --sts-refresh -- Force refresh of STS Token Credentials

Note: This command honors the same $AWS_SHARED_CREDENTIALS_FILE that is supported by the AWS SDK to load credentials. Since these credentials are temporary, it is strongly discouraged that users set this to ~/.aws/credentials, but use a temporary file instead.

ecs

ecs commands

eval

Generate a series of export VARIABLE=VALUE lines suitable for sourcing into your shell. Allows obtaining new AWS credentials without starting a new shell. Can be used to refresh existing AWS credentials or by specifying the appropriate arguments.

Suggested use (bash): eval $(aws-sso eval <args>)

or if you are using VSCode environment variables you can write the variable to a file:

aws-sso eval <args> >~/.devcontainer/devcontainer.env

Shells supported by eval:

  • bash
  • fish
  • zonsh
  • zsh
  • Windows PowerShell

Flags:

  • --arn <arn>, -a -- ARN of role to assume
  • --account <account>, -A -- AWS AccountID of role to assume (requires --role)
  • --role <role>, -R -- Name of AWS Role to assume (requires --account)
  • --profile <profile>, -p -- Name of AWS Profile to assume
  • --clear, -c -- Generate "unset XXXX" commands to clear the environment
  • --no-region -- Do not set the AWS_DEFAULT_REGION from config.yaml
  • --refresh -- Refresh current IAM credentials

Priority is given to:

  • --refresh (Uses $AWS_SSO_ROLE_ARN)
  • --profile
  • --arn
  • --account and --role

Note: The eval command only honors the $AWS_SSO_ROLE_ARN in the context of the --refresh flag. The $AWS_SSO_ROLE_NAME and $AWS_SSO_ACCOUNT_ID are always ignored.

Note: Using --url-action=print is supported, but you must be able to see the output of STDERR to see the URL to open.

Note: The eval command is not supported under Windows CommandPrompt or PowerShell.

See Environment Variables for more information about what varibles are set.

Windows PowerShell

Getting Windows PowerShell to work requires a slightly different invocation than bash/zsh/etc:

aws-sso eval <args> | Out-String | Invoke-Expression

But other than that, it works the same way.

exec

Exec allows you to execute a command with the necessary AWS environment variables. By default, if no command is specified, it will start a new interactive shell so you can run multiple commands.

Flags:

  • --arn <arn>, -a -- ARN of role to assume ($AWS_SSO_ROLE_ARN)
  • --account <account>, -A -- AWS AccountID of role to assume ($AWS_SSO_ACCOUNT_ID)
  • --env, -e -- Use existing ENV vars generated by AWS SSO to generate a URL
  • --role <role>, -R -- Name of AWS Role to assume ($AWS_SSO_ROLE_NAME)
  • --profile <profile>, -p -- Name of AWS Profile to assume
  • --no-region -- Do not set the AWS_DEFAULT_REGION from config.yaml
  • --sts-refresh -- Force refresh of STS Token Credentials

Arguments: [<command>] [<args> ...]

Priority is given to:

  • --profile
  • --arn ($AWS_SSO_ROLE_ARN)
  • --account ($AWS_SSO_ACCOUNT_ID) and --role ($AWS_SSO_ROLE_NAME)
  • Prompt user interactively

You can not run exec inside of another exec shell.

See Environment Variables for more information about what varibles are set.

process

Process allows you to use AWS SSO as an external credentials provider with profiles defined in ~/.aws/config.

Flags:

  • --arn <arn>, -a -- ARN of role to assume
  • --account <account>, -A -- AWS AccountID of role to assume
  • --role <role>, -R -- Name of AWS Role to assume (requires --account)
  • --profile <profile>, -p -- Name of AWS Profile to assume
  • --sts-refresh -- Force refresh of STS Token Credentials

Priority is given to:

  • --profile
  • --arn
  • --account and --role

Note: The process command does not honor the $AWS_SSO_ROLE_ARN, $AWS_SSO_ACCOUNT_ID, or $AWS_SSO_ROLE_NAME environment variables.

Note: Due to a limitation of the AWS tooling, setting --url-action print will cause an error because of a limitation of the AWS tooling which prevents it from working.

list

List will list all of the AWS Roles you can assume with the metadata/tags available to be used for interactive selection with exec. You can control which fields are printed by specifying the field names as arguments.

Flags:

  • --list-fields, -f -- List the available fields to print
  • --prefix <FieldName>=<Prefix>, -P -- Filter results by the given field value & prefix value
  • --csv -- Generate results in CSV format
  • --sort <FieldName>, -s -- Sort results by the provided field name
  • --reverse -- Reverse the sort order

Arguments: [<field> ...]

The arguments are a list of fields to display in the report. Overrides the defaults and/or the specified ListFields in the config.yaml.

Default fields:

  • AccountIdPad
  • AccountAlias
  • RoleName
  • Expires

Note: Sorting for AccountIdPad and Expires is done via their respective AccountId and ExpiresEpoch integer values. Expired entries are considered to be very large. All other fields are sorted alphabetically and in a case-sensitive manner.

login

Login via AWS IAM Identity Center (AWS SSO) and retrieve a security token used to fetch IAM Role credentials. As of aws-sso v2.x this is required unless you enable AutoLogin.

When you login, aws-sso will attempt to refresh your cache of IAM Roles per the CacheRefresh setting.

Flags:

  • --no-config-check -- Disable automatic updating of ~/.aws/config
  • --url-action, -u -- How to handle URLs for your SSO provider
  • --sts-refresh -- Force refresh of STS Token Credentials
  • --threads <int> -- Number of threads to use with AWS (default: 5)

logout

Invalidates the AWS Identity Center AccessToken (used to fetch new IAM Credentials) for the selected SSO instance and removes all IAM Role Credentials cached in the aws-sso secure store.

setup completions

Configures your appropriate shell configuration file to add auto-complete and Shell Helpers functionality for commands, flags and options. Must restart your shell for this to take effect.

For more information about this feature, please read the quickstart.

Flags:

  • --source -- Print out the completions for sourcing into the current shell
  • --install -- Install the new v1.9+ shell completions scripts
  • --uninstall -- Uninstall the new v1.9+ shell completions scripts
  • --shell <shell> -- Override the detected shell
  • --shell-script <file> -- Override the default shell script file to modify

setup ecs

See the setup ecs commands in the ECS Server command documentation.

setup profiles

Modifies the ~/.aws/config file to contain a named profile for every role accessible via AWS SSO CLI.

Flags:

  • --diff -- Print a diff of changes to the config file instead of modifying it
  • --print -- Print profile entries instead of modifying config file
  • --force -- Write a new config file without prompting
  • --aws-config -- Override path to ~/.aws/config file

By default, each profile is named according to the ProfileFormat config option or overridden by the user defined Profile option on a role by role basis.

For each profile generated, it will specify a list of settings as defined by the ConfigVariables setting in the ~/.aws-sso/config.yaml.

For more information on this feature, read the Quickstart Guide.

Unlike with other ways to use AWS SSO CLI, the AWS IAM STS credentials will automatically refresh. This means, if you do not have a valid AWS SSO token, you will be prompted to authentiate via your SSO provider and subsequent requests to obtain new IAM STS credentials will automatically happen as needed.

Note: You should run this command any time your list of AWS roles changes in order to update the ~/.aws/config file or enable AutoConfigCheck.

Note: It is important that you do NOT remove the # BEGIN_AWS_SSO_CLI and # END_AWS_SSO_CLI lines from your config file! These markers are used to track which profiles are managed by AWS SSO CLI.

Note: This command does not honor the --sso option as it operates on all of the configured AWS SSO instances in the ~/.aws-sso/config.yaml file.

setup wizard

Allows you to run through the configuration wizard and update your AWS SSO CLI config file (~/.aws-sso/config.yaml). By default, it only does a very basic configuration to get started with. The --advanced flag prompts for more settings and is useful for taking advantage of some of the new settings if you've upgraded from a previous version!

Flags:

  • --advanced -- Prompts for many more config options

tags

Tags dumps a list of AWS SSO roles with the available metadata tags.

Flags:

  • --account <account> -- Filter results by AccountId
  • --role <role> -- Filter results by Role Name

By default the following key/values are available as tags to your roles:

  • AccountID -- AWS Account ID
  • Role -- AWS Role Name
  • Email -- Email address of root account associated with the AWS Account
  • AccountName -- Account Name for any role defined in config (see below)
  • AccountAlias --- AWS Account Alias defined by account administrator
  • History -- Tag tracking if this role was recently used. See HistoryLimit in config.

time

Print a string containing the number of hours and minutes that the current AWS Role's STS credentials are valid for in the format of HHhMMm

Note: This command is only useful when you have STS credentials configured in your shell via eval or exec.

Environment Variables

Honored Variables

The following environment variables are honored by aws-sso:

  • AWS_CONFIG_FILE -- Override default path to ~/.aws/config file
  • AWS_SSO_FILE_PASSWORD -- Password to use with the file SecureStore.
  • AWS_SSO_CONFIG -- Specify an alternate path to the aws-sso config file.
  • AWS_SSO_BROWSER -- Override default browser for AWS SSO login.
  • AWS_SSO -- Override default AWS SSO instance to use.
  • AWS_SSO_ROLE_NAME -- Used for --role/-R with some commands.
  • AWS_SSO_ACCOUNT_ID -- Used for --account/-A with some commands.
  • AWS_SSO_ROLE_ARN -- Used for --arn/-a with some commands and with. eval --refresh.
  • AWS_SSO_FIELD_SORT -- Used by list command to select which field to sort by.
  • AWS_SSO_FIELD_SORT_REVERSE -- Used to reverse the list sort order. Set to 1 to enable.

The file SecureStore will use the AWS_SSO_FILE_PASSWORD environment variable for the password if it is set. (Not recommended.)

Additionally, $AWS_PROFILE is honored via the standard AWS tooling when using the setup-profiles command to manage your ~/.aws/config file.

Managed Variables

The following AWS environment variables are automatically set by aws-sso:

  • AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID -- Authentication identifier required by AWS
  • AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY -- Authentication secret required by AWS
  • AWS_SESSION_TOKEN -- Authentication secret required by AWS
  • AWS_DEFAULT_REGION -- Region to use AWS with (will never override an existing value)

The following environment variables are specific to aws-sso:

  • AWS_SSO_ACCOUNT_ID -- The AccountID for your IAM role
  • AWS_SSO_ROLE_NAME -- The name of the IAM role
  • AWS_SSO_ROLE_ARN -- The full ARN of the IAM role
  • AWS_SSO_SESSION_EXPIRATION -- The date and time when the IAM role credentials will expire in RFC3339 format
  • AWS_SSO_DEFAULT_REGION -- Tracking variable for AWS_DEFAULT_REGION
  • AWS_SSO_PROFILE -- User customizable varible using the ProfileFormat template
  • AWS_SSO -- AWS SSO instance name

Note: AWS SSO does NOT set $AWS_PROFILE to avoid problems with the AWS tooling and SDK.

Shell Helpers

These are optional helper functions installed in your shell as part of the setup-completions command. To install these helper functions, please see the quickstart page.

Important: Unlike the commands above, these are standalone shell functions and you should NOT prefix them with aws-sso.

By default, these commands uses your default AWS SSO instance, but you can override this by first exporting AWS_SSO to the value you want to use.

If you want to pass specific args to aws-sso-profile you can use the $AWS_SSO_HELPER_ARGS environment variable. If nothing is set, then --level error --no-config-check is used.

Currently the following shells are supported:

Note: zsh completion requires you to have the following lines set before the AWS SSO completions:

autoload -Uz +X compinit && compinit
autoload -Uz +X bashcompinit && bashcompinit

Note: Please reach out if you can help with adding support for your favorite shell!

aws-sso-profile

This shell command enables you to assume an AWS SSO role by the profile name in the current shell and with auto-complete functionality. Basically it is a wrapper around eval $(aws-sso eval --profile XXXX) but with auto-complete.

This command will export the same environment variables as the eval command.

Note: This command will overwrite existing environment variables, but will refuse to run if AWS_PROFILE is set.

aws-sso-clear

Clears all the managed environment variables in your current shell set by aws-sso-profile or by running eval $(aws-sso env ...).