AWS Toolkit

AWS Toolkit is an extension for Visual Studio Code that enables you to interact with Amazon Web Services (AWS). See the AWS Toolkit for Visual Studio Code user guide for complete documentation.

See Setup for installation requirements, or Get help for support.

Features

• AWS Explorer
  • API Gateway
  • CloudFormation stacks
  • CloudWatch Logs
  • ECR
  • EventBridge schemas
  • Lambda functions
  • S3 explorer
  • Step Functions
• CDK Explorer
• AWS Serverless Applications (SAM)
• Amazon CloudWatch Logs
• Amazon EventBridge Schemas
• Amazon ECS task definition files
• AWS Step Functions
• AWS Systems Manager
• AWS: Commands

AWS Explorer

The AWS Explorer provides access to the AWS services that you can work with when using the Toolkit. To see the AWS Explorer, choose the AWS icon in the Activity bar.

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CDK Explorer

The AWS CDK Explorer enables you to work with AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK) applications. It shows a top-level view of your CDK applications that have been sythesized in your workspace.

With the CDK explorer, you can navigate the CDK application's infrastructure stacks, resources, and policies.

For full details see the AWS CDK Explorer in the user guide.

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AWS Serverless Applications

The AWS Toolkit enables you to develop AWS serverless applications locally. It also provides CodeLenses in VS Code to do the following:

• Use SAM (serverless application model) templates to build and debug your locally developed AWS serverless applications.
• Run selected AWS Lambda functions.

To start debugging with a SAM template, click the Add Debug Configuration CodeLens in the template file.

The CodeLens indicator in the SAM template allows you to add a debug configuration for the serverless application.

Alternatively, you can run and debug just the AWS Lambda function and exclude other resources defined by the SAM template. Again, use a CodeLens indicator for an AWS Lambda-function handler. (A handler is a function that Lambda calls to start execution of a Lambda function.)

The CodeLens indicator in the application file lets you add a debug configuration for a selected AWS Lambda function.

When you run a debug session, the status and results are shown in the OUTPUT panel when the AWS Toolkit output channel is selected.

After a local run is complete, the output appears in the OUTPUT tab.

When you're satisfied with performance, you can deploy your serverless application. The SAM template is converted to a CloudFormation template, which is then used to deploy all the application's assets to the AWS Cloud.

Launch config auto-completion ("IntelliSense")

The Add Debug Configuration CodeLens creates launch configs of type aws-sam in the VS Code launch.json file. You can also create these entries by hand.

When editing launch.json configs, AWS Toolkit provides auto-completion and contextual documentation, as shown below.

Supported runtimes

The Toolkit local SAM debugging feature supports these Lambda runtimes:

• C# (.NET Core 2.1, 3.1; .NET 5.0)
• Go (1.x)
• Java (8, 8.al2, 11)
• JavaScript (Node.js 10.x, 12.x, 14.x)
• Python (2.7, 3.6, 3.7, 3.8)

For more information see Working with AWS Serverless Applications in the user guide. To get setup for local debugging, see Configuring your toolchain.

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Amazon CloudWatch Logs

The AWS Toolkit provides support for Amazon CloudWatch Logs. Using the AWS Explorer of the Toolkit, you can perform the following operations on Log Groups:

• List CloudWatch Log Groups
• View Log Streams for a Log Group

Viewing a Log Stream will immediately load the most recent 10,000 lines or 1 MB of data (whichever is smaller), and their timestamps. From this view, users can access the following actions:

• Load older or newer log events
• Save currently-loaded Log Stream to a log file
• Copy Log Stream name

Example:

For full details, see Working with CloudWatch Logs in the Toolkit's user guide.

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Amazon EventBridge Schemas

The AWS Toolkit provides support for Amazon EventBridge schemas. Using the AWS Explorer of the Toolkit, you can perform the following operations on these schemas:

• View an available schema
• Search for an available schema
• Generate code for an available schema

Example:

For full details, see Working with Amazon EventBridge Schemas in the Toolkit's user guide.

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Amazon ECS task definition files

The AWS Toolkit provides support for Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS). With the Toolkit installed in VS Code, IntelliSense functionality is provided for Amazon ECS task-definition files that you are updating in the editor.

Example:

For full details, see Working with Amazon Elastic Container Service in the Toolkit's user guide.

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AWS Systems Manager Documents

The AWS Toolkit provides support for AWS Systems Manager Documents. With the Toolkit installed in VS Code, you have access to the following features when working on Automation Documents:

• Download, edit, and publish your Automation documents
• Code completion and validation for both formats of documents: YAML and JSON
• Templates and code snippets to help kickstart your Automation document

Example:

For full details, see Working with AWS Systems Manager Documents in the Toolkit's user guide.

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AWS Step Functions

The AWS Toolkit provides support for AWS Step Functions. With the Toolkit installed in VS Code, working with state machines is a more streamlined process.

• Create, update, execute, and download state machines.
• See live graph visualizations of your state machine.
• Take advantage of features such as code completion and validation, and code snippets.

Example:

For full details, see Working with AWS Step Functions in the Toolkit's user guide.

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AWS: Commands

The Toolkit provides commands (prefixed with AWS:) to the VS Code command palette, available by selecting View > Command Palette or by typing CTRL-SHIFT-p (macOS: CMD-SHIFT-p).

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Setup

To access most features of the AWS Toolkit, complete the Setting Up steps from the user guide.

1. Create an AWS account (see also Prerequisites).
2. Create and configure your AWS credentials.
3. Connect the Toolkit to AWS with those credentials.

To develop serverless applications with the Toolkit, you must set up your toolchain and do the following on the local machine where the Toolkit is installed:

1. Install the AWS CLI (Command Line Interface).
2. Install and start Docker.
3. Install the AWS SAM CLI.

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Get help

For additional details on how to use the AWS Toolkit, see the user guide.

To report issues with the Toolkit or to propose Toolkit code changes, see the aws/aws-toolkit-vscode repository on GitHub.

You can also contact AWS directly.

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