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
  • App Runner
  • 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
• Experimental Features

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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/TypeScript (Node.js 12.x, 14.x)
• Python (3.6, 3.7, 3.8, 3.9)

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).

AWS Command	Description
AWS: About Toolkit	Displays information about the AWS Toolkit.
AWS: Add SAM Debug Configuration	Creates an aws-sam Debug Configuration from a function in the current source file
AWS: Connect to AWS	Connects the Toolkit to an AWS account. For more information, see Connecting to AWS in the user guide.
AWS: Copy Log Stream Name	Copies the name of the active CloudWatch Log Stream
AWS: Create a new Step Functions state machine	Generates a new Amazon States Language definition to use as the definition for a new Step Functions state machine. For more information, see State Machine Templates in the user guide.
AWS: Create a new Issue on Github	Opens the AWS Toolkit's New Issue page on Github.
AWS: Create a new Systems Manager Document locally	Creates a new Systems Manager Document from a template in either YAML or JSON
AWS: Create Credentials Profile	Creates an AWS credentials profile. For more information, see Setting Up Your AWS Credentials in the user guide.
AWS: Create Lambda SAM Application	Generates code files for a new AWS serverless Lambda application. For more information, see Creating a Serverless Application in the user guide.
AWS: Create new CloudFormation Template	Creates a new starter Cloudformation Template
AWS: Create new SAM Template	Creates a new starter SAM Template
AWS: Deploy SAM Application	Deploys a local serverless application to an AWS account. For more information, see Deploying a Serverless Application in the user guide.
AWS: Detect SAM CLI	Checks whether the Toolkit can communicate correctly with the AWS SAM CLI that is installed.
AWS: Focus on Explorer View	Opens the AWS panel and focuses the Explorer.
AWS: Hide region from the Explorer	Hides an AWS Region from the AWS Explorer.
AWS: Publish state machine to Step Functions	Creates or updates a remote state machine using the local Amazon States Language definition file. For more information, see Work With State Machines in VS Code in the user guide.
AWS: Publish a Systems Manager Document	Creates a new document or updates an existing document in your account using the currently open document.
AWS: Render state machine graph	Renders the state machine definition into a graph visualization. For more information, see State Machine Graph Visualization in the user guide.
AWS: Report an Issue	In the GitHub repository for the Toolkit, opens the page to create a new issue.
AWS: Save Current Log Content To File	Saves currently-loaded CloudWatch Log Stream data to a local .log file.
AWS: Show region in the Explorer	Displays an AWS Region in the AWS Explorer.
AWS: Sign out	Disconnects the Toolkit from the currently-connected AWS account.
AWS: Submit Quick Feedback...	Submit a private, one-way message and sentiment to the AWS Toolkit dev team. For larger issues that warrant conversations or bugfixes, please submit an issue in Github with the AWS: Create a New Issue on Github command.
AWS: Toggle SAM hints in source files	Toggles AWS SAM-related Codelenses in source files
AWS: View Toolkit Logs	Displays log files that contain general Toolkit diagnostic information.
AWS: View Quick Start	Open this quick-start guide.
AWS: View CDK Documentation	Opens the user guide for the CDK portion of the Toolkit.
AWS: View Toolkit Documentation	Opens the user guide for the Toolkit.
AWS: View Source on GitHub	Opens the GitHub repository for the Toolkit.
AWS: Focus on CDK (Preview) View	Opens the AWS panel and focuses the CDK view.

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Experimental Features

Sometimes we'll introduce experimental features that we're trying out. These may have bugs, usability problems or may not be fully functional, and because these aren't ready for prime-time we'll hide them behind an experimental feature flag.

Experimental features can be enabled in the extension preferences (Preferences -> Settings -> Extensions -> AWS Configuration -> Experiments).

Please note that experimental features may be disabled or removed at any time.

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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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