AWS SSO Helper is a lightweight, focused, and high-performance VS Code extension designed to simplify local profile management and authentication with AWS IAM Identity Center (formerly AWS SSO).
Unlike the official AWS Toolkit which bundles dozens of heavy cloud services, this extension is built to do one thing exceptionally well: organize your local configuration, authenticate in seconds, and prepare your workspace environment instantly.
Features
Active Session Detection: Scans and parses the local AWS CLI cache directory (~/.aws/sso/cache/) to determine the real-time status of your SSO sessions, displaying whether a profile is active or expired.
Environment-Injected Terminal Shells: Spawns integrated VS Code terminals pre-configured with the selected AWS_PROFILE environment variable. This eliminates the need to append the --profile flag to AWS CLI commands or third-party tools (such as Terraform or the Serverless Framework). Works seamlessly across Linux, WSL, macOS, and Windows with any shell.
Single-Click SSO Login: Authenticates your profiles using aws sso login directly from the sidebar. The extension opens an integrated terminal and triggers the browser-based authorization process automatically.
Interactive Profile Configuration: Safely configures and adds new profiles or SSO sessions. The interactive assistant validates against duplicates and appends settings cleanly to ~/.aws/config without modifying or disrupting existing configurations.
Direct Configuration Access: Provides a quick shortcut to open your local ~/.aws/config file directly inside the VS Code editor.
Prerequisites
AWS CLI v2 installed on your system.
At least one AWS SSO profile previously configured.
Development and Installation
Open this repository inside VS Code.
Press F5 to start debugging. A new window named [Extension Development Host] will open with the extension loaded.
Select the AWS SSO Helper icon (Key icon) in the Activity Bar to begin testing.
Packaging and Distribution (.vsix)
To package this extension into a standalone .vsix file for distribution or manual installation:
Compile the TypeScript source code:
npm run compile
Package the extension:
npm run package
This creates aws-sso-helper-0.1.0.vsix in the project root.
Install it manually by dragging the .vsix file into the Extensions panel or via the command line:
