Select your cookie preferences

We use essential cookies and similar tools that are necessary to provide our site and services. We use performance cookies to collect anonymous statistics, so we can understand how customers use our site and make improvements. Essential cookies cannot be deactivated, but you can choose “Customize” or “Decline” to decline performance cookies.

If you agree, AWS and approved third parties will also use cookies to provide useful site features, remember your preferences, and display relevant content, including relevant advertising. To accept or decline all non-essential cookies, choose “Accept” or “Decline.” To make more detailed choices, choose “Customize.”

Preferences
Contact Us
Feedback
AWS Documentation
Create an AWS Account
DescribeTrails - AWS CloudTrail
Request SyntaxRequest ParametersResponse SyntaxResponse ElementsErrorsSee Also

DescribeTrails

PDF

Retrieves settings for one or more trails associated with the current Region for your account.

Request Syntax

{
   "includeShadowTrails": boolean,
   "trailNameList": [ "string" ]
}

Request Parameters

For information about the parameters that are common to all actions, see Common Parameters.

The request accepts the following data in JSON format.

includeShadowTrails

Specifies whether to include shadow trails in the response. A shadow trail is the replication in a Region of a trail that was created in a different Region, or in the case of an organization trail, the replication of an organization trail in member accounts. If you do not include shadow trails, organization trails in a member account and Region replication trails will not be returned. The default is true.

Type: Boolean

Required: No

trailNameList

Specifies a list of trail names, trail ARNs, or both, of the trails to describe. The format of a trail ARN is:

arn:aws:cloudtrail:us-east-2:123456789012:trail/MyTrail

If an empty list is specified, information for the trail in the current Region is returned.

  • If an empty list is specified and IncludeShadowTrails is false, then information for all trails in the current Region is returned.

  • If an empty list is specified and IncludeShadowTrails is null or true, then information for all trails in the current Region and any associated shadow trails in other Regions is returned.

Note

If one or more trail names are specified, information is returned only if the names match the names of trails belonging only to the current Region and current account. To return information about a trail in another Region, you must specify its trail ARN.

Type: Array of strings

Required: No

Response Syntax

{
   "trailList": [ 
      { 
         "CloudWatchLogsLogGroupArn": "string",
         "CloudWatchLogsRoleArn": "string",
         "HasCustomEventSelectors": boolean,
         "HasInsightSelectors": boolean,
         "HomeRegion": "string",
         "IncludeGlobalServiceEvents": boolean,
         "IsMultiRegionTrail": boolean,
         "IsOrganizationTrail": boolean,
         "KmsKeyId": "string",
         "LogFileValidationEnabled": boolean,
         "Name": "string",
         "S3BucketName": "string",
         "S3KeyPrefix": "string",
         "SnsTopicARN": "string",
         "SnsTopicName": "string",
         "TrailARN": "string"
      }
   ]
}

Response Elements

If the action is successful, the service sends back an HTTP 200 response.

The following data is returned in JSON format by the service.

trailList

The list of trail objects. Trail objects with string values are only returned if values for the objects exist in a trail's configuration. For example, SNSTopicName and SNSTopicARN are only returned in results if a trail is configured to send SNS notifications. Similarly, KMSKeyId only appears in results if a trail's log files are encrypted with AWS KMS customer managed keys.

Type: Array of Trail objects

Errors

For information about the errors that are common to all actions, see Common Errors.

CloudTrailARNInvalidException

This exception is thrown when an operation is called with an ARN that is not valid.

The following is the format of a trail ARN: arn:aws:cloudtrail:us-east-2:123456789012:trail/MyTrail

The following is the format of an event data store ARN: arn:aws:cloudtrail:us-east-2:123456789012:eventdatastore/EXAMPLE-f852-4e8f-8bd1-bcf6cEXAMPLE

The following is the format of a dashboard ARN: arn:aws:cloudtrail:us-east-1:123456789012:dashboard/exampleDash

The following is the format of a channel ARN: arn:aws:cloudtrail:us-east-2:123456789012:channel/01234567890

HTTP Status Code: 400

InvalidTrailNameException

This exception is thrown when the provided trail name is not valid. Trail names must meet the following requirements:

  • Contain only ASCII letters (a-z, A-Z), numbers (0-9), periods (.), underscores (_), or dashes (-)

  • Start with a letter or number, and end with a letter or number

  • Be between 3 and 128 characters

  • Have no adjacent periods, underscores or dashes. Names like my-_namespace and my--namespace are not valid.

  • Not be in IP address format (for example, 192.168.5.4)

HTTP Status Code: 400

NoManagementAccountSLRExistsException

This exception is thrown when the management account does not have a service-linked role.

HTTP Status Code: 400

OperationNotPermittedException

This exception is thrown when the requested operation is not permitted.

HTTP Status Code: 400

UnsupportedOperationException

This exception is thrown when the requested operation is not supported.

HTTP Status Code: 400

See Also

For more information about using this API in one of the language-specific AWS SDKs, see the following:

Previous topic:

DescribeQuery

Need help?

PrivacySite termsCookie preferences
© 2025, Amazon Web Services, Inc. or its affiliates. All rights reserved.