Installing the Amazon Q Developer extension or plugin in your IDE - Amazon Q Developer
Choose a supported version of your IDEIn JetBrains IDEsIn Visual Studio CodeIn Visual StudioIAM principals in your AWS consoleUnderstanding AWS coding environments

Installing the Amazon Q Developer extension or plugin in your IDE

To set up Amazon Q Developer in your integrated development environment (IDE), complete the following steps. After installing the Amazon Q extension or plugin, authenticate through IAM Identity Center or AWS Builder ID. You can use Amazon Q for free, without an AWS account, by authenticating with Builder ID.

To get started, download the Amazon Q extension or plugin for your IDE:

Note

In general, the default duration for a session that is authenticated through IAM Identity Center is 8 hours. However, in the case of Amazon Q, the default session lasts 90 days (if you set up IAM Identity Center on April 18, 2024 or later). For more information refer to How to extend the session duration for Amazon Q in the IDE in the IAM Identity Center User Guide.

To sign in and authenticate, complete the steps in this section.

Prerequisite: Choose a supported version of your IDE

Amazon Q is available as an extension in Visual Studio Code and a plugin in JetBrains. Amazon Q is also available in the AWS Toolkit for Visual Studio.

  • The minimum version of Visual Studio Code supported by Amazon Q is 1.85.0.

  • The minimum version of JetBrains IDEs (including IntelliJ and PyCharm) supported by Amazon Q is 232.1. JetBrains versions 232, 233 and 241 are also supported.

  • The minimum version of Visual Studio supported by Amazon Q is 1.68.

Authenticating in JetBrains IDEs

You can authenticate for free with AWS Builder ID or with IAM Identity Center with a Amazon Q Developer Pro subscription. Choose your authentication method to see steps to start using Amazon Q in your JetBrains IDE.

Builder ID

This procedure does not require you to have Builder ID. If you have not yet signed up for Builder ID, you will have the opportunity to do so during the sign-in process.

  1. Install the Amazon Q IDE plugin in your JetBrains IDE.

  2. Choose the Amazon Q icon in your IDE.

    The icon will be on the side of the interface by default.

  3. Follow the instructions in your browser to authenticate with Builder ID.

  4. To begin using Amazon Q, choose the Amazon Q icon to chat with Amazon Q, or choose Amazon Q from the navigation bar at the bottom of your IDE.

Amazon Q Developer Pro license

Before you begin this procedure, your administrator should have:

  • Created an identity for you in IAM Identity Center

  • Subscribed that identity to Amazon Q Developer Pro

After your identity has been subscribed to Amazon Q Developer Pro, complete the following steps to authenticate:

  1. Install the Amazon Q IDE plugin in your JetBrains IDE.

  2. Choose the Amazon Q icon in your IDE.

    The icon will be on the side of the interface by default.

  3. Choose Use with Pro license.

  4. Fill in the Start URL that your administrator got from the Amazon Q subscription console.

  5. Fill in the AWS Region in which your administrator set up your IAM Identity Center account instance.

  6. Choose Continue. The focus will switch to your web browser.

  7. Follow the instructions in your browser to authenticate with IAM Identity Center.

  8. To begin using Amazon Q, choose the Amazon Q icon to chat with Amazon Q, or choose Amazon Q from the navigation bar at the bottom of your IDE.

Authenticating in Visual Studio Code

You can authenticate for free with AWS Builder ID or with IAM Identity Center with a Amazon Q Developer Pro subscription. Choose your authentication method to see steps to start using Amazon Q in VS Code.

Builder ID

This procedure does not require you to have Builder ID. If you have not yet signed up for Builder ID, you will have the opportunity to do so during the sign-in process.

  1. Install the Amazon Q IDE extension in VS Code.

  2. Choose the Amazon Q icon in your IDE.

    The icon will be on the side of the interface by default.

  3. Follow the instructions in your browser to authenticate with Builder ID.

  4. To begin using Amazon Q, choose the Amazon Q icon to chat with Amazon Q, or choose Amazon Q from the navigation bar at the bottom of your IDE.

Amazon Q Developer Pro license

Before you begin this procedure, your administrator should have:

  • Created an identity for you in IAM Identity Center

  • Subscribed that identity to Amazon Q Developer Pro

After your identity has been subscribed to Amazon Q Developer Pro, complete the following steps to authenticate:

  1. Install the Amazon Q IDE extension in VS Code.

  2. Choose the Amazon Q icon in your IDE.

    The icon will be on the side of the interface by default.

  3. Choose Use with Pro license.

  4. Fill in the Start URL that your administrator got from the Amazon Q subscription console.

  5. Fill in the AWS Region in which your administrator set up your IAM Identity Center account instance.

  6. Choose Continue. The focus will switch to your web browser.

  7. Follow the instructions in your browser to authenticate with IAM Identity Center.

  8. To begin using Amazon Q, choose the Amazon Q icon to chat with Amazon Q, or choose Amazon Q from the navigation bar at the bottom of your IDE.

Authenticating in Visual Studio

To connect to your AWS accounts from the Toolkit for Visual Studio, open the Getting Started with the AWS Toolkit User Interface (connection UI) by completing the following procedure.

  1. From the Visual Studio main menu, expand Extensions then expand the AWS Toolkit.

  2. From the AWS Toolkit menu options choose Getting Started.

  3. The Getting Started with the AWS Toolkit connection UI opens in Visual Studio.

You can authenticate for free with AWS Builder ID or with IAM Identity Center with a Amazon Q Developer Pro subscription. Choose your authentication method to see steps to start using Amazon Q in Visual Studio.

Builder ID

  1. From the Getting Started with the AWS Toolkit connection UI, select the Amazon Q Developer radial to expand the Amazon Q Developer authentication options.

  2. From the I'm using Amazon Q Developer on my own section, choose the Sign up or Sign in button to open the Log in with AWS Builder ID dialog.

  3. Choose the Proceed to Browser button to open the AWS Authorize request site in your default web browser.

  4. Follow the prompts in your default web browser. You're notified when the authorization process is complete, and it's safe to close your browser and return to Visual Studio.

Amazon Q Developer Pro license

  1. From the Getting Started with the AWS Toolkit connection UI, select the Amazon Q Developer radial to expand the Amazon Q Developer authentication options.

    Note

    If no stored credentials exist, proceed to Step 3 to add or update your IAM Identity Center credentials.

  2. From the My organization has enabled Amazon Q Developer section, expand the Choose from an existing Profile or add new drop-down menu to choose from your list of stored credentials.

  3. From the Profile Type drop-down menu, choose AWS IAM Identity Center.

  4. In the Profile Name text field, enter the Profile Name of the IAM Identity Center profile you want to authenticate with.

  5. In the Start URL text field, enter the Start URL that's attached to your IAM Identity Center credentials.

  6. From the Profile Region (defaults to us-east-1) drop-down menu, choose the Profile Region that's defined by the IAM Identity Center user profile you're authenticating with.

  7. From the SSO Region (defaults to us-east-1) drop-down menu, choose the SSO Region that's defined by your IAM Identity Center credentials, then choose the Connect button to open the Log in with AWS IAM Identity Center dialog.

  8. From the Log in with AWS IAM Identity Center dialog, choose the Proceed to Browser button to open the AWS Authorize request site in your default web browser.

  9. Follow the prompts in your default web browser. You're notified when the authorization process is complete, and it's safe to close your browser and return to Visual Studio.

For more information about authenticating in the Toolkit for Visual Studio, see Getting Started in the AWS Toolkit for Visual Studio User Guide.

Using an IAM principal in your AWS console

Depending on how you use AWS, you may be accustomed to using your IAM credentials to sign in to the console for all AWS services. However, you cannot use Amazon Q Developer in the IDE as an IAM principal, or with an IAM role. You must authenticate with credentials from either IAM Identity Center or Builder ID.

Understanding AWS coding environments

If you’re developing software, then the way to get the most out of Amazon Q Developer is to subscribe to Amazon Q Developer Pro, and to use Amazon Q through the Amazon Q extension in Visual Studio or Visual Studio Code, or the plugin in a JetBrains IDE. Most of the features described in this chapter pertain to that setup.

However, there are many other aspects of your AWS experience in which you might end up writing code. For example, you might write code directly in the AWS Lambda interface. In some such cases, inline code suggestions from Amazon Q can be available to you.

Environments in which you may enable code suggestions include:

  • Amazon SageMaker Studio Classic

  • JupyterLab

  • Amazon EMR Studio

  • AWS Glue Studio

  • AWS Lambda

  • AWS Cloud9

To enable code suggestions in coding environments within the AWS console, your administrator must assign you the appropriate permissions.