awslim

awslim is a CLI for AWS services by Go. This CLI is generated from the AWS SDK Go v2 service client.

(The old name is aws-sdk-client-go.)

Motivation

While the AWS CLI is very useful, it can be resource intensive to boot up. awslim offers a simpler and faster alternative for limited use cases. It acts as a simple wrapper around AWS SDK Go v2, providing essential functionality without the full feature set of the AWS CLI.

Features

• Call any method(API) of the AWS service client.
• Use JSON or Jsonnet for input.
• Output the result in JSON format.
• Bind a file to the input/output struct of the method.
• Query the output by JMESPath.
• Use the AWS CLI configuration file. (i.e., ~/.aws/config)

Limitations

• Not 100% compatible with the AWS CLI.
• No support for AWS CLI plugins. (i.e., session-manager-plugin)
• Some service names and different from the AWS CLI. (i.e., logs -> cloudwatchlogs, ce -> costexplorer)

Installation

Note: The release binaries are large (about 500MB after being extracted) and have a slight startup delay (about 100ms), due to the inclusion of code to access all AWS services. However, it is still faster than the AWS CLI.

For optimized performance, build your own binary tailored to the specific services you need. See the Build section for details.

Release binary

Download the binary from the release page.

Homebrew

$ brew install fujiwara/tap/awslim

Build

You can build the client yourself, including only the needed services and methods. This produces a smaller, faster binary.

The client is built by using a AWSLIM_GEN environment variable or a gen.yaml configuration file.

AWSLIM_GEN environment variable

Set the AWSLIM_GEN environment variable to specify the services you want to include, separated by commas.

For example, to build the client for ECS, Firehose, and S3:

$ export AWSLIM_GEN="ecs,firehose,s3"

This will generate all methods for the specified services. If you want to generate only specific methods, use the gen.yaml configuration file.

gen.yaml configuration file

# gen.yaml
services:
  ecs:
    - DescribeClusters
    - DescribeTasks
  firehose:
    - DescribeDeliveryStream
    - ListDeliveryStreams
  s3:
    # all methods of the service

Keys under services are AWS service names (github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go-v2/service/*), and values are method names of the service client (for example, s3 is s3.Client). If you don't specify the method names, all methods of the service client are generated.

Build binary for specified OS/Architecture

Set the AWSLIM_OS and AWSLIM_ARCH environment variables to specify the OS and architecture for the build. If these variables are not set, awslim will build based on the architecture of the build environment. These variables can also be specified when building with Docker. The values that can be set for AWSLIM_OS and AWSLIM_ARCH are the same as for GOOS and GOARCH.

Build on your machine

To build the client, run the following commands (or simply run make):

$ go generate ./cmd/awslim-gen .
$ go build -o your-client ./cmd/awslim/main.go

1. go generate ./cmd/awslim-gen . generates the generator by gen.yaml.
2. go build -o your-client ./cmd/awslim/main.go builds your client.

If you change the configuration, run make clean before make to purge the generated files.

Build with Docker

Use the ghcr.io/fujiwara/awslim:builder builder image to build the client inside a container.

Environment variables:

• GIT_REF: Git reference to checkout the repository. Default is main. You can specify a branch, tag, or commit hash.

Example using the AWSLIM_GEN environment variable:

$ docker run -it -e AWSLIM_GEN=ecs,firehose,s3 ghcr.io/fujiwara/awslim:builder
...

Example to specify build for OS and Architecture:

$ docker run -it -e AWSLIM_GEN=ecs,firehose,s3 -e AWSLIM_OS=linux -e AWSLIM_ARCH=arm64 ghcr.io/fujiwara/awslim:builder
...

Example using the gen.yaml configuration file:

$ docker run -it -v $(pwd)/gen.yaml:/app/gen.yaml ghcr.io/fujiwara/awslim:builder
...
Completed. Please extract /app/awslim from this container!
For example, run the following command:
docker cp $(docker ps -lq):/app/awslim .

After the build is complete, copy the binary to your host machine with the docker cp command.

$ docker cp $(docker ps -lq):/app/awslim .

Docker Multi-stage build

It is also possible to use the ghcr.io/fujiwara/awslim:builder builder image in a multi-stage build.

Run ./build-in-docker.sh in the container to build the client. The built binary will be located in the /app directory. You can then copy it to the final image.

FROM ghcr.io/fujiwara/awslim:builder AS builder
ENV AWSLIM_GEN=ecs,firehose,s3
ENV GIT_REF=v0.1.2
RUN ./build-in-docker.sh

FROM debian:bookworm-slim
COPY --from=builder /app/awslim /usr/local/bin/awslim

Performance comparison

Example of executing sts get-caller-identity on a 0.25 vCPU Fargate(AMD64) using /usr/bin/time -v for time measurement.

command	CPU time(user, sys)	Elapsed time(s)	Max memory(MB)	Size(MB)
aws	0.67 + 0.10 = 0.77	3.11	64.2	225
awslim(all)	0.08 + 0.03 = 0.11	0.43	101.5	476
awslim(40)	0.02 + 0.01 = 0.03	0.05	30.2	95

• awslim(built for all AWS services): 7.0x faster than aws
• awslim(built for 40 AWS services): 62.0x faster than aws

aws-cli/2.15.51 Python/3.11.8, awslim 0.1.0

Usage

Usage: awslim [<service> [<method> [<input>]]] [flags]

Arguments:
  [<service>]    service name
  [<method>]     method name
  [<input>]      input JSON/Jsonnet struct or filename

Flags:
  -h, --help                      Show context-sensitive help.
  -i, --input-stream=STRING       bind input filename or '-' to io.Reader field in the input struct
  -o, --output-stream=STRING      bind output filename or '-' to io.ReadCloser field in the output struct
      --[no-]api-output           output API response into stdout
  -r, --raw-output                output raw strings, not JSON texts
  -c, --compact                   compact JSON output
  -q, --query=STRING              JMESPath query to apply to output
      --ext-str=KEY=VALUE;...     external variables for Jsonnet
      --ext-code=KEY=VALUE;...    external code for Jsonnet
      --[no-]strict               strict input JSON unmarshaling
  -f, --follow-next=""            OutputField=InputField format. follow the next token.
  -n, --dry-run                   dry-run mode
  -v, --version                   show version

• service: AWS service name.
• method: Method name of the service client.
• input: JSON input for the method.

The output is JSON format.

Example usage

Show supported services

$ awslim

Show methods of the service

$ awslim ecs

Call method of the service

The third argument is a JSON or Jsonnet input for the method. This can be omitted if the method requires no input ({} is passed implicitly).

$ awslim ecs DescribeClusters '{"Cluster":"default"}' # JSON

$ awslim ecs DescribeClusters "{Cluster:'default'}"   # Jsonnet

If the method name is "kebab-case", it automatically converts to "PascalCase" (i.e., describe-clusters -> DescribeClusters).

$ awslim ecs describe-clusters '{"Cluster":"default"}'

The third argument can be a filename that contains JSON or Jsonnet input.

$ awslim ecs DescribeClusters my.jsonnet

Note: By default, the input JSON is unmarshaled strictly. Unknown fields for the input struct in the input JSON cause an error. If you want to unmarshal the input JSON non-strictly, use --no-strict option.

--ext-str and --ext-code options

Pass external variables to Jsonnet.

This is useful when you want to use variables in Jsonnet.

$ awslim ecs DescribeClusters my.jsonnet --ext-str Cluster=default

// my.jsonnet
{
  Cluster: std.extVar("Cluster"),
}

--input-stream (-i) option

Bind a file or stdin to the input struct.

$ awslim s3 put-object '{"Bucket": "my-bucket", "Key": "my.txt"}' --input-stream my.txt

s3#PutObjectInput has Body field of io.Reader. --input-stream option binds the file to the field.

When the input struct has only one field of io.Reader, awslim reads the file and binds it to the field automatically. (Currently, all SDK input structs have at most one io.Reader field.)

When the input struct has a "*Length" field for the size of the content, awslim sets the size of the content to the field automatically. For example, s3#PutObjectInput has ContentLength field.

If --input-stream is "-", awslim reads from stdin. In this case, awslim reads all contents into memory, so it is not suitable for large files. Consider using a file for large content.

--output-stream (-o) option

Bind the io.ReadCloser of the API output to a file or stdout.

$ awslim s3 get-object '{"Bucket": "my-bucket", "Key": "my.txt"}' --output-stream my.txt

s3#GetObjectOutput has Body field of io.ReadeCloser. --output-stream option binds the file to the field.

When the output struct has only one field of io.ReadCloser, awslim copies it to the file automatically. (Currently, all SDK output structs have at most one io.ReadCloser field.)

If --output-stream is "-", awslim writes into stdout. The result of the API also writes to stdout by default. If you don't want to output the result, use --no-api-output.

--raw-output (-r) option

Output raw strings, not JSON texts.

This option is like jq -r.

--follow-next (-f) option

Set the output/input field name of the next token. This option is useful for paginated APIs.

For example, s3#ListObjectsV2Output has a NextContinuationToken field, and s3#ListObjectsV2Input has a ContinuationToken field. You can follow the next token by the following command.

{FieldInOutput}={FieldInInput} format is used for --follow-next option.

$ awslim s3 list-objects-v2 '{"Bucket": "my-bucket"}' \
  --follow-next NextContinuationToken=ContinuationToken

If the same field name is used in the output and input, you can omit the input field name.

$ awslim ecs list-tasks '{"Cluster":"default"}' \
  --follow-next NextToken

Query output by JMESPath

Query the output by JMESPath like the AWS CLI.

$ awslim ecs DescribeClusters '{"Cluster":"default"}' \
  --query 'Clusters[0].ClusterArn'

Show help

For method-specific documentation, use the help argument to display the URL of the method's documentation. Since awslim is a simple wrapper for the AWS SDK Go v2 service client, its usage mirros that of the SDK.

$ awslim ecs DescribeClusters help
See https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/aws/aws-sdk-go-v2/service/ecs#Client.DescribeClusters

LICENSE

MIT

Author

Fujiwara Shunichiro