Setup steps for HTTPS connections to AWS CodeCommit repositories on Linux, macOS, or Unix with the AWS CLI credential helper - AWS CodeCommit
Step 1: Initial configuration for CodeCommitStep 2: Install GitStep 3: Set up the credential helperStep 4: Connect to the CodeCommit console and clone the repositoryNext steps

Setup steps for HTTPS connections to AWS CodeCommit repositories on Linux, macOS, or Unix with the AWS CLI credential helper

Before you can connect to AWS CodeCommit for the first time, you must complete the initial configuration steps. For most users, this can be done most easily by following the steps in For HTTPS users using Git credentials. However, if you want to connect to CodeCommit using a root account, federated access, or temporary credentials, you can use the credential helper that is included in the AWS CLI.

Note

Although the credential helper is a supported method for connecting to CodeCommit using federated access, an identity provider, or temporary credentials, the recommended method is to install and use the git-remote-codecommit utility. For more information, see Setup steps for HTTPS connections to AWS CodeCommit with git-remote-codecommit.

Step 1: Initial configuration for CodeCommit

Follow these steps to set up an Amazon Web Services account, create and configure an IAM user, and install the AWS CLI.

To create and configure an IAM user for accessing CodeCommit

  1. Create an Amazon Web Services account by going to http://aws.amazon.com and choosing Sign Up.

  2. Create an IAM user, or use an existing one, in your Amazon Web Services account. Make sure you have an access key ID and a secret access key associated with that IAM user. For more information, see Creating an IAM User in Your Amazon Web Services account.

    Note

    CodeCommit requires AWS Key Management Service. If you are using an existing IAM user, make sure there are no policies attached to the user that expressly deny the AWS KMS actions required by CodeCommit. For more information, see AWS KMS and encryption.

  3. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the IAM console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/iam/.

  4. In the IAM console, in the navigation pane, choose Users, and then choose the IAM user you want to configure for CodeCommit access.

  5. On the Permissions tab, choose Add Permissions.

  6. In Grant permissions, choose Attach existing policies directly.

  7. From the list of policies, select AWSCodeCommitPowerUser or another managed policy for CodeCommit access. For more information, see AWS managed policies for CodeCommit.

    After you have selected the policy you want to attach, choose Next: Review to review the list of policies to attach to the IAM user. If the list is correct, choose Add permissions.

    For more information about CodeCommit managed policies and sharing access to repositories with other groups and users, see Share a repository and Authentication and access control for AWS CodeCommit.

To install and configure the AWS CLI

  1. On your local machine, download and install the AWS CLI. This is a prerequisite for interacting with CodeCommit from the command line. We recommend that you install AWS CLI version 2. It is the most recent major version of the AWS CLI and supports all of the latest features. It is the only version of the AWS CLI that supports using a root account, federated access, or temporary credentials with git-remote-codecommit.

    For more information, see Getting Set Up with the AWS Command Line Interface.

    Note

    CodeCommit works only with AWS CLI versions 1.7.38 and later. As a best practice, install or upgrade the AWS CLI to the latest version available. To determine which version of the AWS CLI you have installed, run the aws --version command.

    To upgrade an older version of the AWS CLI to the latest version, see Installing the AWS Command Line Interface.

  2. Run this command to verify that the CodeCommit commands for the AWS CLI are installed.

    aws codecommit help

    This command returns a list of CodeCommit commands.

  3. Configure the AWS CLI with a profile by using the configure command, as follows:.

    aws configure

    When prompted, specify the AWS access key and AWS secret access key of the IAM user to use with CodeCommit. Also, be sure to specify the AWS Region where the repository exists, such as us-east-2. When prompted for the default output format, specify json. For example, if you are configuring a profile for an IAM user:

    AWS Access Key ID [None]: Type your IAM user AWS access key ID here, and then press Enter
AWS Secret Access Key [None]: Type your IAM user AWS secret access key here, and then press Enter
Default region name [None]: Type a supported region for CodeCommit here, and then press Enter
Default output format [None]: Type json here, and then press Enter

    For more information about creating and configuring profiles to use with the AWS CLI, see the following:

    To connect to a repository or a resource in another AWS Region, you must reconfigure the AWS CLI with the default Region name. Supported default Region names for CodeCommit include:

    • us-east-2

    • us-east-1

    • eu-west-1

    • us-west-2

    • ap-northeast-1

    • ap-southeast-1

    • ap-southeast-2

    • ap-southeast-3

    • me-central-1

    • eu-central-1

    • ap-northeast-2

    • sa-east-1

    • us-west-1

    • eu-west-2

    • ap-south-1

    • ap-south-1

    • ca-central-1

    • us-gov-west-1

    • us-gov-east-1

    • eu-north-1

    • ap-east-1

    • me-south-1

    • cn-north-1

    • cn-northwest-1

    • eu-south-1

    • ap-northeast-3

    • af-south-1

    • il-central-1

    For more information about CodeCommit and AWS Region, see Regions and Git connection endpoints. For more information about IAM, access keys, and secret keys, see How Do I Get Credentials? and Managing Access Keys for IAM Users. For more information about the AWS CLI and profiles, see Named Profiles.

Step 2: Install Git

To work with files, commits, and other information in CodeCommit repositories, you must install Git on your local machine. CodeCommit supports Git versions 1.7.9 and later. Git version 2.28 supports configuring the branch name for initial commits. We recommend using a recent version of Git.

To install Git, we recommend websites such as Git Downloads.

Note

Git is an evolving, regularly updated platform. Occasionally, a feature change might affect the way it works with CodeCommit. If you encounter issues with a specific version of Git and CodeCommit, review the information in Troubleshooting.

Step 3: Set up the credential helper

  1. From the terminal, use Git to run git config, specifying the use of the Git credential helper with the AWS credential profile, and enabling the Git credential helper to send the path to repositories:

    git config --global credential.helper '!aws codecommit credential-helper $@'
git config --global credential.UseHttpPath true
    Tip

    The credential helper uses the default AWS credential profile or the Amazon EC2 instance role. You can specify a profile to use, such as CodeCommitProfile, if you have created an AWS credential profile to use with CodeCommit: 

    git config --global credential.helper '!aws --profile CodeCommitProfile codecommit credential-helper $@'

    If your profile name contains spaces, make sure you enclose the name in quotation marks (").

    You can configure profiles per repository instead of globally by using --local instead of --global.

    The Git credential helper writes the following value to ~/.gitconfig:

    [credential]    
    helper = !aws --profile CodeCommitProfile codecommit credential-helper $@
    UseHttpPath = true
    Important

    If you want to use a different IAM user on the same local machine for CodeCommit, you must run the git config command again and specify a different AWS credential profile.

  2. Run git config --global --edit to verify the preceding value has been written to ~/.gitconfig. If successful, you should see the preceding value (in addition to values that might already exist in the Git global configuration file). To exit, typically you would type :q, and then press Enter.

    If you experience problems after you configure your credential helper, see Troubleshooting.

    Important

    If you are using macOS, use the following steps to ensure the credential helper is configured correctly.

  3. If you are using macOS, use HTTPS to connect to a CodeCommit repository. After you connect to a CodeCommit repository with HTTPS for the first time, subsequent access fails after about 15 minutes. The default Git version on macOS uses the Keychain Access utility to store credentials. For security measures, the password generated for access to your CodeCommit repository is temporary, so the credentials stored in the keychain stop working after about 15 minutes. To prevent these expired credentials from being used, you must either:

    • Install a version of Git that does not use the keychain by default.

    • Configure the Keychain Access utility to not provide credentials for CodeCommit repositories.

    1. Open the Keychain Access utility. (You can use Finder to locate it.)

    2. Search for git-codecommit.us-east-2.amazonaws.com. Highlight the row, open the context menu or right-click it, and then choose Get Info.

    3. Choose the Access Control tab.

    4. In Confirm before allowing access, choose git-credential-osxkeychain, and then choose the minus sign to remove it from the list.

      Note

      After you remove git-credential-osxkeychain from the list, you see a pop-up message whenever you run a Git command. Choose Deny to continue. If you find the pop-ups too disruptive, here are some other options:

Step 4: Connect to the CodeCommit console and clone the repository

If an administrator has already sent you the name and connection details for the CodeCommit repository, you can skip this step and clone the repository directly.

To connect to a CodeCommit repository

  1. Open the CodeCommit console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/codesuite/codecommit/home.

  2. In the region selector, choose the AWS Region where the repository was created. Repositories are specific to an AWS Region. For more information, see Regions and Git connection endpoints.

  3. Find the repository you want to connect to from the list and choose it. Choose Clone URL, and then choose the protocol you want to use when cloning or connecting to the repository. This copies the clone URL.

    • Copy the HTTPS URL if you are using either Git credentials with your IAM user or the credential helper included with the AWS CLI.

    • Copy the HTTPS (GRC) URL if you are using the git-remote-codecommit command on your local computer.

    • Copy the SSH URL if you are using an SSH public/private key pair with your IAM user.

    Note

    If you see a Welcome page instead of a list of repositories, there are no repositories associated with your AWS account in the AWS Region where you are signed in. To create a repository, see Create an AWS CodeCommit repository or follow the steps in the Getting started with Git and CodeCommit tutorial.

  4. Open a terminal and run the git clone command with the HTTPS URL you copied. For example, to clone a repository named MyDemoRepo to a local repo named my-demo-repo in the US East (Ohio) Region:

    git clone https://git-codecommit.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/v1/repos/MyDemoRepo my-demo-repo

Next steps

You have completed the prerequisites. Follow the steps in Getting started with CodeCommit to start using CodeCommit.