Command Line and API Access

You can use the command line interface (CLI), Query API, or REST interfaces to access AWS GovCloud (US) services. You can also use a language-specific software development kit (SDK). For more information about the CLI and SDK tools, see Tools for Amazon Web Services.

For the CLI and APIs, users need programmatic access.

Users need programmatic access if they want to interact with AWS outside of the AWS Management Console. The way to grant programmatic access depends on the type of user that's accessing AWS.

To grant users programmatic access, choose one of the following options.

Which user needs programmatic access?	To	By
Workforce identity (Users managed in IAM Identity Center)	Use temporary credentials to sign programmatic requests to the AWS CLI, AWS SDKs, or AWS APIs.	Following the instructions for the interface that you want to use. For the AWS CLI, see Configuring the AWS CLI to use AWS IAM Identity Center in the AWS Command Line Interface User Guide. For AWS SDKs, tools, and AWS APIs, see IAM Identity Center authentication in the AWS SDKs and Tools Reference Guide.
IAM	Use temporary credentials to sign programmatic requests to the AWS CLI, AWS SDKs, or AWS APIs.	Following the instructions in Using temporary credentials with AWS resources in the IAM User Guide.
IAM	(Not recommended) Use long-term credentials to sign programmatic requests to the AWS CLI, AWS SDKs, or AWS APIs.	Following the instructions for the interface that you want to use. For the AWS CLI, see Authenticating using IAM user credentials in the AWS Command Line Interface User Guide. For AWS SDKs and tools, see Authenticate using long-term credentials in the AWS SDKs and Tools Reference Guide. For AWS APIs, see Managing access keys for IAM users in the IAM User Guide.

After you have installed your preferred tool, you can access AWS GovCloud (US) by specifying the AWS GovCloud (US) Region endpoint for the AWS service that you want to access.

For information about setting Regions using the AWS SDKs, see Available Region Endpoints for the AWS SDKs in the AWS Developer Center.

If you use the CLI, you can either specify the AWS GovCloud (US) endpoint every time you enter a command, or you can set an environment variable that specifies the endpoint. For more information, see the CLI documentation for the service.

#Example Call
aws s3 ls --endpoint-url https://s3-fips.us-gov-west-1.amazonaws.com --region us-gov-west-1