AWS CLI tool to run any awscli read command and filter the resulting Values and JSON for custom table output.

The following command will find all ec2 instances where prodand web are found somewhere in the Value of any key of the whole response. For all matching resources it will extract all fields that match any of the second filters, so anything that matches Tags.Name, State, InstanceId or vpcid.

awsquery ec2 describe-instances prod web -- Tags.Name State InstanceId vpcid

This creates endless flexibility to shape your aws cli calls, filter any output and present exactly the data you need during review, debugging or development.

With uv installed, there is nothing else to set up — no virtualenv, no pip install, not even a Python of your own:

uvx awsquery ec2 describe-instances prod web -- Tags.Name State InstanceId

Want it as a permanent command with tab completion?

uv tool install awsquery
awsquery ec2 describe-instances

See Installation for aliases, version pinning, running straight from GitHub, and CI usage.

• Smart Multi-Level Calls: Automatically resolves missing parameters by inferring and calling list operations
• Flexible Filtering: Multi-level filtering with -- separators for resource, value, and column filters
• Partial Matching: All filters use case-insensitive partial matching (both value and column filters)
• Keys Discovery: Show all available fields from any API response with -k/--keys (fixed to show keys from successful responses)
• Debug Mode: Comprehensive debug output with -d/--debug featuring structured output with timestamps and DebugContext tracking
• Security Validation: Enforces ReadOnly AWS operations with comprehensive validation
• Smart Auto-completion: Enhanced tab completion with split matching and prefix priority for AWS services and actions
• Smart Parameter Extraction: Handles both specific fields and standard AWS field patterns (Name, Id, Arn)
• Intelligent Response Processing: Clean extraction of list data, ignoring metadata
• Tabular Output: Customizable column display with automatic filtering
• Pagination Support: Handles large AWS responses automatically
• Region/Profile Support: AWS CLI-compatible --region and --profile arguments for session management
• Tag Transformation: Automatic conversion of AWS Tags list to key-value pairs for better readability
• Default Column Filters: Configuration-based default columns for common AWS queries
• Default Actions: A bare service name runs its curated default operation — awsquery ec2 == awsquery ec2 describe-instances (e.g. awsquery s3 -- Name)
• Parameter Passing: Direct parameter passing to AWS APIs with -p/--parameter for advanced use cases
• Hint-Based Resolution: Function selection hints with -i/--input for multi-step calls, including cross-service support and field extraction targeting
• Agent/LLM Mode: --docs prints the complete reference in one call; --schema, --list-services and --list-actions answer offline with no AWS credentials
• Token-Efficient Output: --format csv|tsv|ndjson and --limit keep results small enough for a context window
• Predictable Exit Codes: documented codes 0-4, structured JSON errors, and no interactive prompts when stdin is not a TTY

awsquery is on PyPI, so the fastest way to use it is uv: no virtualenv, no pip install, no Python version juggling. uv downloads a matching Python for you if you don't have one.

# macOS / Linux
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

# Homebrew
brew install uv

# Windows (PowerShell)
powershell -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -c "irm https://astral.sh/uv/install.ps1 | iex"

That is the only thing anyone on your team has to install. uv itself is a single binary and brings its own Python.

uvx awsquery ec2 describe-instances
uvx awsquery s3 list-buckets backup -- Name CreationDate
uvx awsquery -j cloudformation describe-stacks prod

The first run downloads awsquery and its dependencies into uv's cache (a few seconds). Every run after that starts in about a tenth of a second. Nothing is added to your PATH, no virtualenv is created, and nothing is left behind in your project.

Pin an exact version when you want reproducibility, or force a check for the newest release:

uvx [email protected] ec2 describe-instances   # pinned, fully reproducible
uvx awsquery@latest ec2 describe-instances  # re-checks PyPI for a newer version

Add one line to your shell config and the whole team is running the same tool without installing anything:

# ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc
alias awsquery='uvx awsquery@latest'

# pin the version instead, if you want everyone on the same release
alias awsquery='uvx [email protected]'

# ~/.config/fish/config.fish
alias --save awsquery 'uvx awsquery@latest'

# PowerShell $PROFILE
function awsquery { uvx awsquery@latest @args }

Then use it exactly as documented everywhere else in this README:

awsquery ec2 describe-instances prod web -- Tags.Name State InstanceId

Two things to know about the alias route: @latest contacts PyPI on every invocation (so it needs network and adds a moment of latency), and shell tab completion does not work through an alias because argcomplete needs a real executable on PATH. If either matters to you, use uv tool install instead — it gives you the same command with neither drawback.

uv tool install awsquery      # installs the awsquery command into ~/.local/bin
awsquery ec2 describe-instances

uv tool upgrade awsquery      # upgrade later
uv tool uninstall awsquery    # remove it again
uv tool list                  # see what's installed

uv keeps awsquery in its own isolated environment, so it can never conflict with your project virtualenvs or your system Python. If the command isn't found afterwards, run uv tool update-shell (it adds uv's bin directory to your PATH) and restart your shell.

This is the recommended setup for daily use and the one that supports shell autocomplete.

# latest commit on main, run once
uvx --from git+https://github.com/flomotlik/awsquery awsquery ec2 describe-instances

# a specific branch, tag or commit
uvx --from git+https://github.com/flomotlik/awsquery@main awsquery ec2 describe-instances
uvx --from git+https://github.com/flomotlik/[email protected] awsquery ec2 describe-instances

# install that version persistently
uv tool install git+https://github.com/flomotlik/awsquery

--from is needed because the package name (awsquery) has to be resolved from the repository while the command to execute is still awsquery.

git clone https://github.com/flomotlik/awsquery.git
cd awsquery

# run the working tree directly - uv creates and syncs .venv on the fly
uv run awsquery ec2 describe-instances

# or via make
make uv-run ARGS="ec2 describe-instances"

# put your local checkout on PATH as the global awsquery command
uv tool install --editable .   # same as: make tool-install

uv run resolves dependencies from uv.lock, which is committed to this repository, so every contributor gets an identical environment. Use uv run --frozen awsquery ... to fail instead of silently re-locking if the lockfile is out of date.

awsquery requires Python 3.10 or newer. uv fetches a suitable interpreter automatically, so you do not need a system Python at all. To force a specific version:

uvx --python 3.12 awsquery ec2 describe-instances
uv tool install --python 3.12 awsquery
uv run --python 3.12 awsquery ec2 describe-instances

uvx does not sandbox anything: the tool runs as you, with your environment and your ~/.aws directory, so credentials, SSO sessions, profiles, assumed roles and AWS_* environment variables all behave exactly as they do with the AWS CLI.

AWS_PROFILE=prod uvx awsquery ec2 describe-instances
uvx awsquery --profile prod --region eu-central-1 ec2 describe-instances

No install step is needed beyond uv itself:

# GitHub Actions
- uses: astral-sh/setup-uv@v6
- run: uvx [email protected] -j cloudformation describe-stacks -- StackName StackStatus
  env:
    AWS_REGION: eu-central-1

Pin the version ([email protected]) in CI so a new release can never change your output format underneath a pipeline.

If your team does not use uv, the classic routes still work:

pip install awsquery       # into the current environment
pipx install awsquery      # isolated, like uv tool install

git clone https://github.com/flomotlik/awsquery.git
cd awsquery
uv sync --extra dev        # or: make uv-sync
uv run pytest tests/ -v    # or: make uv-test

The pip equivalent is pip install -e ".[dev]" (make install-dev).

awsquery supports tab completion for AWS services and actions through argcomplete.

Completion requires a real awsquery executable on your PATH, because the shell calls that executable to compute the candidates. So it works with uv tool install awsquery, pipx install and pip install — but not with a uvx alias, since the alias is expanded by your shell after completion has already run.

uv tool install awsquery   # the setup below assumes this (or pip/pipx)

The register-python-argcomplete helper comes from argcomplete. With uv you never have to install it: uvx --from argcomplete register-python-argcomplete runs it on demand.

# Add to ~/.bashrc or ~/.bash_profile
eval "$(uvx --from argcomplete register-python-argcomplete awsquery)"

# If argcomplete is already installed in your environment (pip/pipx users):
eval "$(register-python-argcomplete awsquery)"

# Add to ~/.zshrc
autoload -U bashcompinit && bashcompinit
eval "$(uvx --from argcomplete register-python-argcomplete awsquery)"

# Add to ~/.config/fish/config.fish
uvx --from argcomplete register-python-argcomplete --shell fish awsquery | source

To keep shell startup instant, write the completion script to a file once and source that instead of calling uvx on every new shell:

uvx --from argcomplete register-python-argcomplete awsquery > ~/.awsquery-complete.sh
echo 'source ~/.awsquery-complete.sh' >> ~/.zshrc   # or ~/.bashrc

After adding the appropriate line to your shell configuration, restart your shell or source the file:

source ~/.bashrc  # or ~/.zshrc, etc.

Now you can use enhanced tab completion with smart matching:

awsquery <TAB>              # Shows available services
awsquery ec2 <TAB>          # Shows available ec2 actions
awsquery s3 list-<TAB>      # Shows s3 list actions
awsquery ec2 desc-inst<TAB> # Smart completion: "desc-inst" matches "describe-instances"
awsquery cloudformation des-sta<TAB> # Matches "describe-stacks"

The autocomplete system now features:

• Split matching: "desc-inst" matches "describe-instances"
• Prefix priority: Exact prefix matches are prioritized over substring matches
• Security filtering: Only shows ReadOnly operations

# Query EC2 instances with filtering
awsquery ec2 describe-instances

# Filter by values (partial match, case-insensitive on ANY field)
awsquery ec2 describe-instances prod web

# Specify output columns (partial match, case-insensitive)
awsquery ec2 describe-instances prod -- Name State InstanceId

# List S3 buckets containing "backup" (matches if "backup" appears anywhere in any field)
awsquery s3 list-buckets backup

# JSON output format
awsquery -j s3 list-buckets

# Show available fields/keys from an API response
awsquery -k ec2 describe-instances
awsquery --keys s3 list-buckets

# List available services
awsquery

# Debug mode for troubleshooting with enhanced DebugContext output
# Shows structured debug information with timestamps and execution flow
awsquery -d ec2 describe-instances

awsquery [-j|--json] [--format FMT] [--limit N] [-k|--keys] [-d|--debug] [-p PARAM] [-i HINT] [--region REGION] [--profile PROFILE] SERVICE ACTION [VALUE_FILTERS...] [-- TABLE_OUTPUT_FILTERS...]
awsquery --docs | --list-services | [SERVICE] --list-actions | --schema SERVICE ACTION

• SERVICE: AWS service name (ec2, s3, iam, etc.)
• ACTION: Service action (describe-instances, list-buckets, etc.)
• VALUE_FILTERS: Space-separated filters - ALL must match, using case-insensitive partial matching on any field
• TABLE_OUTPUT_FILTERS: Column selection - partial, case-insensitive matching on column names
• -j, --json: Output results in JSON format instead of table
• -k, --keys: Show all available keys for the command
• -d, --debug: Enable debug output for troubleshooting
• -p, --parameter PARAM: Pass parameters directly to AWS API (key=value format, propagates to list operations)
• -i, --input HINT: Multi-step control with cross-service support and function/field/limit hints (e.g., "ec2:desc-inst:instanceid", "desc-clus", ":arn", "::5")
• --region REGION: AWS region to use for requests (e.g., us-west-2)
• --profile PROFILE: AWS profile to use from ~/.aws/credentials
• --format FMT: Output format - table (default), json, csv, tsv, ndjson
• --limit N: Truncate printed rows to N (independent of the -i ::N resource cap)
• --docs: Print the complete agent/LLM reference and exit (no AWS call)
• --schema: Print an operation's input parameters and output fields (no AWS call)
• --list-services / --list-actions: Enumerate services or a service's read-only actions (no AWS call)
• --allow-unsafe: Permit a non-read-only operation without prompting

• ReadOnly Enforcement: Only AWS ReadOnly operations are permitted
• Input Sanitization: Prevents injection attacks through parameter validation
• Operation Validation: All actions validated before execution
• Wildcard Matching: Supports AWS IAM wildcard patterns (e.g., ec2:Describe*)
• Session Isolation: Each profile/region maintains separate boto3 sessions
• Security Testing: Comprehensive test suite validates security constraints

# Find instances with "prod" AND "web" in any field (partial match)
# e.g., matches "production-web-server", "web.prod.example.com"
awsquery ec2 describe-instances prod web

# Show only columns matching Name, State and InstanceId (partial match)
# e.g., "Name" matches "InstanceName", "Tags.Name", "SecurityGroupName"
awsquery ec2 describe-instances prod web -- Name State InstanceId

# Find S3 buckets with "backup" anywhere in the data
# e.g., matches "my-backup-bucket", "bucket-backup-2024", "backups"
awsquery s3 list-buckets backup

# Multi-level CloudFormation query with parameter resolution
# Filters: "prod" in stack data, columns containing "Created" or "StackName"
awsquery cloudformation describe-stack-events prod -- Created StackName

# Targeted field extraction with hint for multi-step calls
awsquery elbv2 describe-tags -i desc-clus:clusterarn prod

# Discover all available keys
awsquery -k ec2 describe-instances

# JSON output with filtering (partial column name matching)
awsquery -j ec2 describe-instances prod -- InstanceId State.Name

# Debug mode with enhanced output showing parameter resolution and API calls
awsquery -d cloudformation describe-stack-resources workers -- EKS

# Use specific AWS region
awsquery --region eu-west-1 ec2 describe-instances

# Use specific AWS profile
awsquery --profile production s3 list-buckets

# Combine region and profile
awsquery --region us-east-2 --profile dev ec2 describe-vpcs

# View transformed tags (partial match on column names)
# Shows any column containing "Tags.Name" or "Tags.Environment"
awsquery ec2 describe-instances -- Tags.Name Tags.Environment

# CloudTrail LookupEvents with complex parameter structures
# Filter events by event name with automatic type conversion
awsquery cloudtrail lookup-events -p LookupAttributes=AttributeKey=EventName,AttributeValue=ConsoleLogin

# Multiple CloudTrail attributes using semicolon separation
awsquery cloudtrail lookup-events -p LookupAttributes=AttributeKey=EventName,AttributeValue=AssumeRole;AttributeKey=Username,AttributeValue=admin

# CloudTrail with time range and resource type filtering
awsquery cloudtrail lookup-events -p StartTime=2024-01-01 -p EndTime=2024-01-31 -p LookupAttributes=AttributeKey=ResourceType,AttributeValue=AWS::S3::Bucket

### Advanced Parameter Passing

# Pass specific parameters to AWS API calls
awsquery ec2 describe-instances -p MaxResults=10
awsquery ec2 describe-instances -p InstanceIds=i-123,i-456 -p MaxResults=5

# Complex parameter structures for SSM with automatic type conversion
awsquery ssm describe-parameters -p ParameterFilters=Key=Name,Option=Contains,Values=Ubuntu,2024

# Multiple complex structures using semicolon separation
awsquery ssm describe-parameters -p ParameterFilters=Key=Name,Option=Contains,Values=Ubuntu;Key=Type,Option=Equal,Values=String

# Complex structures with nested arrays and type conversion
awsquery ec2 describe-instances -p Filters=Name=instance-state-name,Values=running,stopped;Name=tag:Environment,Values=prod,staging

### Hint-Based Multi-Step Resolution

# Use hints to guide automatic parameter resolution
# When describe-tags needs resource ARNs, hint at using describe-clusters
awsquery elbv2 describe-tags -i desc-clus prod

# CloudFormation stack resources with hint for stack selection
awsquery cloudformation describe-stack-resources -i desc-stacks production

# ECS service details with task definition hint
awsquery ecs describe-services -i desc-task web-service

# Field-specific extraction with function:field format
awsquery elbv2 describe-tags -i desc-clus:clusterarn prod  # Extract ClusterArn specifically
awsquery eks describe-fargate-profile -i desc-clus:rolearn  # Extract RoleArn instead of default

# Limit results from multi-step calls (default is 10)
awsquery ssm get-parameters -i ::5  # Limit to 5 parameters
awsquery ec2 describe-network-interfaces -i ::20  # Limit to 20 interfaces
awsquery ec2 describe-network-interfaces -i ::0  # Unlimited (remove default limit)

# Field override without function hint (uses inferred function)
awsquery ecs describe-tasks -i :clusterarn  # Extract ClusterArn field
awsquery rds describe-db-clusters -i :endpoint  # Extract Endpoint field

# Combined: field and limit
awsquery elbv2 describe-tags -i :arn:3  # Extract ARN field, limit to 3 resources

# Full syntax: function, field, and limit
awsquery elbv2 describe-tags -i desc-clus:clusterarn:5  # Use desc-clus, extract ClusterArn, limit to 5

### Cross-Service Parameter Resolution

# Use service prefixes to resolve parameters from different AWS services
# Resolve EC2 instance IDs to use with SSM patch state queries
awsquery ssm describe-instance-patch-states -i ec2:describe-instances:instanceid prod

# Service-only hint: Let EC2 service auto-infer the operation
awsquery ssm describe-instance-patch-states -i ec2 prod

# Use S3 bucket names for CloudTrail event lookup
awsquery cloudtrail lookup-events -i s3:list-buckets:name backup

# Get IAM user names for access key queries
awsquery iam list-access-keys -i iam:list-users:username:5

# Cross-service with EKS clusters for ECS task definitions
awsquery ecs describe-task-definition -i eks:describe-clusters:name prod-cluster

# Combine cross-service with field extraction and limits
awsquery autoscaling describe-auto-scaling-instances -i ec2:desc-inst:instanceid:10 prod

# Service-only with field hint (operation auto-inferred)
awsquery ssm describe-instance-patch-states -i ec2::instanceid prod

Ensure AWS credentials are configured via:

• ~/.aws/credentials (supports multiple profiles)
• Environment variables (AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID, AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY)
• IAM roles (if running on EC2/ECS/Lambda)
• AWS SSO profiles

The tool uses default_filters.yaml to define default columns for common queries. This comprehensive configuration file (3000+ lines) provides extensive pre-configured filters for dozens of AWS services, loaded from the package directory to provide you with standard columns if you don't add any. Prefix any column filter with + to merge with the defaults instead of replacing them — see Additive Column Filters (+Column) below.

Example configuration:

ec2:
  describe_instances:
    columns:
      - InstanceId
      - Tags.Name
      - State.Name
      - InstanceType
      - PrivateIpAddress

s3:
  list_buckets:
    columns:
      - Name
      - CreationDate

Running awsquery <service> with no action runs that service's curated default operation — awsquery ec2 is equivalent to awsquery ec2 describe-instances. This also works with column filters after --: awsquery ec2 -- InstanceId behaves identically to awsquery ec2 describe-instances -- InstanceId.

The curated map lives in src/awsquery/default_actions.yaml as a flat service: action map. Values must be kebab-case — the ReadOnly validator only recognizes kebab-case operation spellings; a snake_case value turns is_readonly_operation false, and the command falls through to an interactive confirmation prompt instead of running.

ec2: describe-instances
s3: list-buckets
lambda: list-functions
iam: get-account-summary

Adding a service is a one-line YAML edit. Every entry must satisfy two rules: the operation must be ReadOnly, and it must take no required parameters (so it can run without extra arguments). A service with no curated entry prints its available ReadOnly actions on stderr and exits non-zero; awsquery with no service at all is unchanged — it still lists available services on stdout and exits 0.

awsquery is built to be driven by coding agents and LLM tool calls, not just typed by hand. Three things make that work: the tool documents itself, it can describe any AWS operation without calling AWS, and its output can be made cheap in tokens.

awsquery --docs

Prints the complete agent reference - filter grammar, every flag, output formats, exit codes, the safety model, recipes and failure modes - as Markdown on stdout, in one call, with no AWS access. About 16 KB, sized to drop straight into a context window. This is the one command to give an agent that has never seen awsquery before.

The same text is mirrored at llms-full.txt with an llms.txt index (llmstxt.org convention) for agents that fetch from GitHub rather than run the binary. AGENTS.md is the separate file for agents working on this repository.

These make no AWS API call, need no credentials and no region, and answer in well under a second - so an agent can plan a query before it has any access at all:

awsquery --list-services                      # every supported service
awsquery ec2 --list-actions                   # that service's read-only operations
awsquery --schema ec2 describe-instances      # inputs, and every field the API can return
awsquery --schema -j ec2 describe-instances   # the same as JSON

--schema reads botocore's service model, so it lists all 213 output field paths for ec2 describe-instances with their types - including fields that happen to be absent from your account right now. It also tells you how to turn those paths into column filters.

That is the difference from -k/--keys, which is still there and still useful:

Use --schema to choose columns; use -k to inspect real data. -k follows --format too.

Table borders and indented JSON are expensive to read. Measured on 50 rows by 5 columns: grid table ~2340 tokens, --format json ~2440, --format csv ~790.

awsquery --format csv --limit 50 ec2 describe-instances prod -- InstanceId Tags.Name State.Name

• --format table (default), json, csv, tsv, ndjson
• -j/--json is equivalent to --format json
• csv, tsv, ndjson and json are faithful: values are not truncated, falsy values are preserved, native types survive in the JSON formats (csv/tsv cells are text), and one resource is always one row. table is a display format - it truncates long values, summarises repeats as (+N more), renders falsy cells blank and drops all-blank rows, so never parse it
• An empty result set prints nothing at all under csv/tsv/ndjson (headers come from the data); only json still returns {"results": []}. Exit status is 0 either way
• --limit N truncates the printed resources in any format and notes the truncation on stderr
• --limit is independent of -i ::N, which caps resources fed into multi-level resolution (note -i ::0 means unlimited, while --limit 0 means zero rows)

export AWSQUERY_NON_INTERACTIVE=1

A non-read-only operation is then refused immediately with exit 2 instead of prompting - awsquery never blocks on stdin and never returns a traceback for it. The same applies automatically whenever stdin is not a TTY.

stdout carries data only; notices and errors go to stderr, so stdout stays parseable.

Unknown services and actions are caught offline, before any AWS call, so a typo costs nothing and comes back with the command that fixes it. Under --format json and --format ndjson, errors are also emitted to stderr as one compact JSON object:

{"error": {"code": 2, "type": "UnknownService", "message": "Unknown service 'ec3'",
           "hint": "Run: awsquery --list-services"}}

A successful run with nothing to report uses a notice key instead, so branching on the presence of error is safe.

AWS_REGION is honoured as a fallback when AWS_DEFAULT_REGION is unset, since agents commonly set the former and plain boto3 ignores it.

awsquery --docs                                        # once, to learn the tool
awsquery --schema -j ec2 describe-instances            # pick fields, no credentials needed
awsquery --format csv --limit 50 \
  ec2 describe-instances prod -- InstanceId Tags.Name State.Name   # one narrow query

Combined with uvx, an agent needs no install step at all: uvx awsquery --docs.

# Create .venv and install the project plus dev dependencies from uv.lock
uv sync --extra dev          # or: make uv-sync

# Run anything inside that environment without activating it
uv run awsquery ec2 describe-instances   # or: make uv-run ARGS="ec2 describe-instances"
uv run pytest tests/ -v                  # or: make uv-test
uv run black src tests
uv run mypy src

# Update the lockfile after changing dependencies in pyproject.toml
uv lock                      # or: make uv-lock

# Install your working tree as the global awsquery command
uv tool install --editable . # or: make tool-install
uv tool uninstall awsquery   # or: make tool-uninstall

uv.lock is committed, so uv sync gives every contributor byte-identical dependency versions. Regenerate it with uv lock whenever pyproject.toml dependencies change and commit the result.

The make targets below use pip and the system Python; they work unchanged if you prefer that.

# Install development dependencies
make install-dev

# Run all tests
make test

# Run tests with coverage
make coverage

# Run specific test categories
make test-unit
make test-integration
make test-critical  # Run all tests (comprehensive test suite)

# Code formatting and linting
make format
make format-check  # Check without modifying
make lint
make type-check    # Run mypy type checking
make security-check  # Run security analysis

# Mutation testing
make mutmut        # Run mutation tests
make mutmut-results # Show mutation test results
make mutmut-html   # Generate HTML mutation test report

# Pre-commit hooks
make pre-commit  # Run all pre-commit hooks

# Continuous Integration
make ci  # Run comprehensive CI pipeline (tests, linting, type-check, security)

# Build development container
make docker-build

# Open interactive shell
make shell

# Run tests in Docker
make test-in-docker

# Clean Docker artifacts
make docker-clean

# Watch tests (auto-run on file changes)
make watch-tests

# Build distribution packages
make build

# Clean build artifacts
make clean

# Publish to Test PyPI
make publish-test

# Publish to PyPI (production)
make publish

# Version management
make version  # Show current version
make release  # Create a new release with version bump

All filters in awsquery use case-insensitive matching with optional anchoring:

• ^ at the start: matches values that START WITH the pattern (prefix match)
  • Both ^ (U+005E) and ˆ (U+02C6) are supported for keyboard compatibility
• $ at the end: matches values that END WITH the pattern (suffix match)
• ^...$: matches values that EXACTLY equal the pattern (exact match)
• No operators: matches values that CONTAIN the pattern (partial match)

• Match against ANY field in the response data - both the values and the field names
• ALL specified filters must match (AND logic)
• Case-insensitive matching with optional anchoring
• Because names are searched too, a field name used as a value filter matches every resource (awsquery ec2 describe-instances InstanceId returns everything). Column names belong after --

# "prod" matches: "production", "prod-server", "my-prod-app" (contains)
awsquery ec2 describe-instances prod

# "^prod" matches: "production", "prod-server" (starts with)
awsquery ec2 describe-instances ^prod

# "prod$" matches: "my-prod", "dev-prod" (ends with)
awsquery ec2 describe-instances prod$

# "^prod$" matches: only exactly "prod" (exact match)
awsquery ec2 describe-instances ^prod$

# Both filters must match (AND logic)
awsquery ec2 describe-instances ^prod web$

• Match against column/field names in the output
• Case-insensitive matching with optional anchoring
• Multiple columns can be specified
• Anchors apply to the full flattened key (Instances.0.State.Name), not the displayed header, so prefer suffix anchors (State.Name$) for nested fields - which is why the curated defaults in default_filters.yaml are all $-anchored

# "Instance" matches: "InstanceId", "InstanceType", "InstanceName" (contains)
awsquery ec2 describe-instances -- Instance

# "^Instance" matches: "InstanceId", "InstanceType" (starts with)
awsquery ec2 describe-instances -- ^Instance

# "Name$" matches: "InstanceName", "GroupName", "Tags.Name" (ends with)
awsquery ec2 describe-instances -- Name$

# Anchors apply to the FULL flattened key, which includes list indices
# (e.g. "Instances.0.State.Name"), so "^State.Name$" matches nothing here.
# Use a suffix anchor for nested fields:
awsquery ec2 describe-instances -- State.Name$

# Multiple patterns
awsquery ec2 describe-instances -- ^Instance Name$ State

By default, supplying any column filter REPLACES the curated defaults from default_filters.yaml. Prefix any column with + to merge with the defaults instead:

Notes:

• + is recognised anywhere in the column-filter group (after the -- separator).
• Order is defaults first, then your +-prefixed and bare columns in CLI order.
• Dedup is case-sensitive on the exact pattern string: +Foo plus default Foo collapses to one column; +foo plus Foo keeps both.
• + applies only to column filters — value/resource filter behaviour is unchanged.

The tool automatically handles parameter resolution for nested API calls:

# Automatically fetches stack list, then events for matching stacks
awsquery cloudformation describe-stack-events production

# Three-level call: list stacks → get resources → filter results
awsquery cloudformation describe-stack-resources prod -- Lambda

Pass parameters directly to AWS API calls using the -p flag. This is useful for fine-tuning API behavior:

# Limit results for large responses
awsquery ec2 describe-instances -p MaxResults=20

# Filter specific resources by ID
awsquery ec2 describe-instances -p InstanceIds=i-1234567890abcdef0,i-0987654321fedcba0

# Multiple parameters (can use multiple -p flags)
awsquery elbv2 describe-load-balancers -p PageSize=10 -p Names=my-alb

# Complex parameter structures (for APIs like SSM)
awsquery ssm describe-parameters -p ParameterFilters=Key=Name,Option=Contains,Values=Ubuntu

Parameter Format:

• Simple: Key=Value
• Lists: Key=Value1,Value2,Value3
• Complex structures: Use semicolons to separate multiple objects (e.g., Key1=Val1,Val2;Key2=Val3)
• Type conversion: Numbers and booleans are automatically converted
• Nested structures: Comma-separated values within objects, semicolon-separated objects
• CloudTrail example: LookupAttributes=AttributeKey=EventName,AttributeValue=Login;AttributeKey=Username,AttributeValue=admin

Guide multi-step parameter resolution with function/field/limit hints:

# Basic function hint - guides which list operation to use
awsquery cloudformation describe-stack-resources -i list-sta production

# Field extraction hint - specify exact field to extract
awsquery elbv2 describe-tags -i desc-clus:clusterarn prod

# Result limiting - control how many resources are processed (default: 10)
awsquery ssm get-parameters -i ::5  # Limit to 5 parameters
awsquery ec2 describe-instances -i ::20  # Limit to 20 instances
awsquery s3 list-objects-v2 -i ::0  # Unlimited (remove default limit)

# Field override without function (uses inferred function)
awsquery ecs describe-tasks -i :clusterarn  # Extract ClusterArn field

# Combined hints - function:field:limit
awsquery elbv2 describe-tags -i desc-clus:clusterarn:5  # Function + field + limit
awsquery rds describe-db-snapshots -i :arn:10  # Field + limit (inferred function)

Hint Syntax: [function]:[field]:[limit]

• function: Operation to use (e.g., "desc-clus", smart matching enabled)
• field: Specific field to extract (e.g., "arn", "clusterarn")
• limit: Max resources to process (e.g., "5", "10", "0" for unlimited)
• Any component can be omitted (e.g., "::5" for limit only, ":arn" for field only)

Key Features:

• Smart matching: "desc-inst" matches "describe-instances"
• Field targeting: Override default field extraction
• Result limiting: Default 10 items, configurable with ::N syntax
• Flexible syntax: Mix and match function/field/limit as needed

# All filters must match (AND logic), each using partial matching
# Finds instances where ALL three terms appear somewhere in the data
awsquery ec2 describe-instances production web database

# Column filters use partial, case-insensitive matching
# Shows columns containing "Instance", "State", or "Private" in their names
awsquery ec2 describe-instances -- Instance State Private

# Combine value and column filters
# Finds buckets with "backup" in any field, shows Name and Creation columns
awsquery s3 list-buckets backup -- Name Creation

# Partial matching examples:
# "prod" matches "production", "prod-server", "myproduct"
# "PROD" matches "production" (case-insensitive)
# "i-123" matches "i-1234567890abcdef0"

• Use specific filters to reduce API calls
• Column filters (--) don't affect API calls, only display
• Use --region to avoid cross-region latency
• Keys mode (-k) adds overhead; use only for discovery

"No matching resources found"

• Check your filters are not too restrictive
• Use debug mode (-d) to see actual API responses
• Verify you have permissions in the target region/account

"Access Denied" errors

• Ensure your AWS credentials have ReadOnly permissions
• Check if using the correct profile with --profile
• Verify the operation is permitted

"Parameter validation failed"

• Some APIs require specific parameters
• The tool attempts automatic resolution but may need manual input
• Use debug mode to see the parameter resolution process

Performance issues

• Large result sets may take time to process
• Use more specific filters to reduce data volume
• Consider using --region to target specific regions

awsquery: command not found after uv tool install

• Run uv tool update-shell and restart your shell; uv's bin directory (~/.local/bin) has to be on PATH
• uv tool list shows what is installed

uvx keeps running an old version

• uvx awsquery reuses the cached version; use uvx awsquery@latest to re-check PyPI
• uv cache clean awsquery drops the cached build entirely
• For an installed tool use uv tool upgrade awsquery

Tab completion does not work

• Completion needs a real executable on PATH: use uv tool install awsquery, not a uvx alias
• See Enable Shell Autocomplete

• Python 3.10 or newer - or just uv, which supplies its own Python
• AWS credentials configured the same way the AWS CLI expects them

The package dependencies are:

• boto3>=1.35.0
• botocore>=1.35.0
• tabulate>=0.9.0
• argcomplete>=3.0.0
• PyYAML>=6.0.0

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

Contributions are welcome! Please ensure tests pass and follow the existing code style.