AWS CLI Cheatsheet - Cloud Commands

All essential AWS CLI commands organized by use case, with 41+ entries you can copy and run directly. Find the right command fast when you need it.

SysOps·41 commands·Last updated 2026-07-19

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Configure & Auth 6

aws configure

Interactive configure access key and region

aws configure --profile production

Configure credentials for a profile

aws configure list

Show current config

aws sts get-caller-identity

Verify the current identity

export AWS_PROFILE=production

Switch the default profile

aws configure set region us-west-2

Set a single config value

EC2 Instances 6

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

List running instances

aws ec2 describe-instances --query "Reservations[].Instances[].[InstanceId,State.Name]"

Query instance IDs and state

aws ec2 start-instances --instance-ids i-xxxxx

Start an instance

aws ec2 stop-instances --instance-ids i-xxxxx

Stop an instance

aws ec2 terminate-instances --instance-ids i-xxxxx

Terminate an instance (irreversible)

aws ec2 create-key-pair --key-name my-key --query "KeyMaterial" --output text > my-key.pem

Create an SSH key pair, save the private key

S3 Storage 8

aws s3 ls

List all buckets

aws s3 ls s3://my-bucket/

List bucket contents

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

Upload a file

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

Download a file

aws s3 sync ./local/ s3://my-bucket/remote/

Sync a directory (changed files only)

aws s3 sync s3://src-bucket/ s3://dst-bucket/ --delete

Sync buckets and delete extras

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

Delete a file

aws s3 mb s3://new-bucket-name

Create a new bucket

IAM Users & Policies 6

aws iam list-users

List all IAM users

aws iam create-user --user-name newuser

Create an IAM user

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

Create an access key for a user

aws iam attach-user-policy --user-name newuser --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AmazonS3ReadOnlyAccess

Attach a managed policy to a user

aws iam list-attached-user-policies --user-name newuser

List a user's attached policies

aws iam delete-user --user-name newuser

Delete an IAM user

CloudWatch Logs 5

aws logs describe-log-groups

List log groups

aws logs tail /app/production --follow

Tail logs in real time

aws logs filter-log-events --log-group-name mygroup --start-time 1234567890

Filter logs by time

aws logs tail /app/production --since 1h

Show logs from the last hour

aws cloudwatch get-metric-statistics --namespace AWS/EC2 --metric-name CPUUtilization --start-time 2026-07-20T00:00:00Z --end-time 2026-07-21T00:00:00Z --period 3600 --statistics Average

Query EC2 CPU utilization metric

Lambda & Services 5

aws lambda list-functions

List all Lambda functions

aws lambda invoke --function-name my-function output.json

Invoke a Lambda function (sync)

aws lambda create-function --function-name my-fn --runtime python3.11 --role arn:aws:iam::123:role/role --handler index.handler --zip-file fileb://fn.zip

Create a Lambda function

aws rds describe-db-instances

List RDS DB instances

aws dynamodb list-tables

List DynamoDB tables

Query Tips 5

aws ec2 describe-instances --output table

Output as a table (readable)

aws s3api list-objects --bucket my-bucket --query "Contents[?Size>`1000000`].Key"

JMESPath query for files > 1MB

aws ec2 describe-instances --filters "Name=tag:Name,Values=web-*"

Filter instances by tag

aws ec2 describe-instances --query "Reservations[].Instances[].PublicIpAddress" --output text

Extract all instances' public IPs

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

Generate a 1-hour presigned URL

Tips

aws configure --profile creates named profiles for multi-account use.
S3 sync transfers only changed files - good for backup/deploy.
describe-instances --query filters output with JMESPath.
Logs Insights queries are more powerful than filter-log-events.
--output json/table/text: text for scripts, table for humans.
--query with JMESPath + --output text suits shell scripts.

Official References

Commands are compiled from the official docs below. Click to verify the latest usage.

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Maintained by LaoHand

Publicly updated on Jul 19, 2026, continuously proofread against official docs.

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