AWS S3 Extension for Visual Studio Code
The AWS S3 extension brings the power of Amazon S3 directly into VS Code. Browse, manage, and manipulate buckets, files, and folders without ever leaving your editor.
📋 Table of Contents
🚀 Features
- File Management – Rename, copy, move, delete, upload, download.
- Folder Management – Create, rename, copy, move, delete, download.
- Copy Options – File name (with/without extension), key, ARN, URL, S3 URI.
- Shortcuts – Pin frequently used files/folders for instant access.
- Advanced Search – Search across buckets by name, extension, or key (case‑insensitive).
- Endpoint & Region Customisation – Works with custom S3‑compatible endpoints (e.g., LocalStack).
- Localstack Support – Seamlessly test against a local S3 emulator.
🌟 Why Use It?
Whether you’re a developer, data scientist, or sysadmin, this extension streamlines your workflow with an intuitive UI that makes S3 resource management faster and more convenient.
📦 Installation
- Open VS Code.
- Go to Extensions (
Ctrl+Shift+X).
- Search for AWS S3 and click Install.
- Reload VS Code if prompted.
🛠️ Getting Started
- Open the AWS S3 Explorer view from the Activity Bar.
- Add a bucket using the
+ button (you can filter by name or list all buckets).
- Browse files/folders, use the context menu for actions, or click the Search button for advanced queries.
📂 Explorer Overview
The Explorer lists all objects in the selected bucket. Use the toolbar to refresh, upload, create folders, or navigate.
🔎 Search Functionality
Search is case‑insensitive and supports:
- File name
- Extension
- Full key path
Results are displayed in the Search view; clicking a result opens it in the Explorer.
🤖 AI Features
This extension integrates AI capabilities to help you work with S3 more effectively. You can leverage AI through the VS Code chat interface to analyze, manage, and troubleshoot your S3 resources.
Current Capabilities & Prompts
The AI can execute real S3 operations through available tools. Here are practical prompts based on actual supported operations:
List & Browse Objects
- "List all objects in bucket
my-bucket"
- "Show objects in bucket
my-bucket with prefix data/"
- "List the first 100 objects in bucket
my-bucket"
- "List all versions of objects in
my-bucket"
Read & Download Files
- "Read the content of
my-bucket/file.txt as text and analyze it"
- "Get the file
my-bucket/config.json and display its content"
- "Download
my-bucket/report.csv to my temp folder"
- "Retrieve metadata for the object
my-bucket/image.jpg"
Create & Write Files
- "Create a file named
settings.json in my-bucket with this content: {json content here}"
- "Write a new file
my-bucket/data.txt containing the following text"
- "Put an object at
my-bucket/uploads/file.txt"
Copy & Manage Objects
- "Copy the file from
my-bucket/source.txt to my-bucket/backup/source.txt"
- "Duplicate the object
my-bucket/original.pdf as my-bucket/copy.pdf"
Delete Objects
- "Delete the object
my-bucket/temp-file.txt"
- "Remove the file at
my-bucket/old/data.csv"
Query Data with S3 Select
- "Query the CSV file at
my-bucket/sales.csv using SQL"
- "Use S3 Select to analyze
my-bucket/data.json with SQL expression"
Check Bucket Access & Policy
- "Check if I have access to bucket
my-bucket"
- "Get the bucket policy for
my-bucket"
- "Test connection to bucket
my-bucket"
Session & Configuration
- "Switch my AWS profile to
production"
- "What AWS profiles do I have configured?"
- "Test my AWS connection"
📁 Buckets & Shortcuts
- Add buckets via the
+ button.
- Create shortcuts for quick access to frequently used objects.
📄 File & Folder Views
File View
Empty Folder View
🌐 Endpoint & Credentials
Endpoint URL
You can point the extension at any S3‑compatible service (e.g., LocalStack) by setting the endpoint URL:
http://localhost:4566
AWS Credentials
The extension follows the standard AWS SDK credential chain:
- Environment variables (
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID, AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY, AWS_SESSION_TOKEN)
- Shared credentials file (
~/.aws/credentials and ~/.aws/config)
- EC2 Instance Metadata Service
- ECS Container Credentials
- AWS SSO
- Web Identity Tokens
For more details, see the AWS CLI credential docs.
🐞 Bug Reporting & Contributions
📊 Telemetry & Privacy
This extension collects anonymous usage telemetry to help improve reliability and features.
What is collected
- Extension activation
- Command usage (e.g. S3 upload, download)
- Success and failure signals
What is NOT collected
- AWS credentials
- Bucket names or object keys
- File paths or file contents
- Personal or identifiable information
Telemetry control
Telemetry is collected only if VS Code telemetry is enabled.
You can disable telemetry via: Settings → Telemetry → Telemetry Level
🗺️ Roadmap
Todo
- MCP support
- A Separate list of s3 buckets to search for buckets and add
- S3 Select support
- Share active profile with other extensions
- Calculate folder size & object count
- Warning for > 1000 items
- Drag‑and‑drop upload
- Detailed error handling (e.g.,
NoSuchBucket)
- Persist favorite/hidden node states
- Progress bars for move/copy/rename operations
- Keep search text per folder navigation
Nice‑to‑Have
- VS Code icons for files/folders (removed in current version)
- Paging beyond 1000 items
- Display selected file/folder count
- Filter by date/size
- Multiple Explorer instances
- Freeze top bar
- Bucket ACL‑based permission handling
- Local folder sync
- Notes & colour tags for buckets/keys
If you find this extension useful, consider:
Thanks for using the AWS S3 Extension!
