What's AWS Cloudshell?

AWS CloudShell is a browser-based, pre-authenticated shell that you can launch directly from the AWS Management Console.

You can run AWS CLI commands against AWS services using your preferred shell, such as Bash, PowerShell, or Z shell.

You can do this without needing to download or install command line tools.

With AWS CloudShell, you can use up to 1 GB of persistent storage for each AWS Region at no additional cost. Persistent storage is located in your home directory ($HOME) and is private to you. Unlike ephemeral environment resources that are recycled after each shell session ends, data in your home directory persists between sessions.

The AWS CloudShell environment and its users are protected by specific security features such as IAM permissions management, shell session restrictions, and Safe Paste for text input.

When you launch AWS CloudShell, a compute environment that's based on Amazon Linux 2 is created. Within this environment, you can access an extensive range of pre-installed development tools, options for uploading and downloading files, and file storage that persists between sessions.

(Try it now: Tutorial: Getting started with AWS CloudShell.)