What Is AWS MCP Server?

AWS MCP Server lets Claude query your AWS environment — CloudWatch logs, S3 buckets, EC2 instances, cost data, and IAM policies — directly from Claude Code or Claude Desktop. It is maintained by AWS Labs under the official awslabs/mcp GitHub organization.

Quick Facts

Field	Value
Package	`aws-mcp`
Install	`npx aws-mcp`
Compatible with	Claude Code, Claude Desktop
Status	active
GitHub	https://github.com/awslabs/mcp

What You Can Do With It

CloudWatch log queries: Ask Claude to retrieve and filter log groups or log streams without opening the AWS Console.
S3 file listing: List objects in a bucket or navigate prefixes conversationally.
EC2 instance status: Check running, stopped, or terminated instance states across regions.
Cost Explorer queries: Pull cost and usage data to inspect spending patterns by service or time range.
IAM policy review: Inspect attached policies and inline policies on roles or users.

How to Set It Up

Prerequisites: Node.js 18+, and AWS credentials configured in your environment (~/.aws/credentials or environment variables AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID / AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY / AWS_REGION).

Claude Code (recommended for terminal use):

claude mcp add aws-mcp -- npx aws-mcp
**Manual config** — add to `.claude/mcp.json` in your project root, or to the global Claude Code config:

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "aws-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["aws-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Claude Desktop — add the same block to claude_desktop_config.json:

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "aws-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["aws-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

After saving, restart Claude Desktop or reload your Claude Code session.

Works Best With

AWS MCP Server is explicitly compatible with Claude Code and Claude Desktop. Claude Code is the stronger pairing for day-to-day infrastructure work — the terminal-native workflow means you can query AWS resources inline with coding tasks without context switching. Claude Desktop works well for ad hoc cost review or IAM audits where you want a conversational interface.

Known Limitations

AWS credentials required: The server inherits credentials from your environment. It will not prompt for credentials interactively — if AWS_REGION or your credential chain is not configured, calls will fail silently or with generic errors.
IAM permissions scope: Claude can only access what your configured credentials allow. Overly restrictive IAM roles will produce permission-denied errors without clear diagnostic messages at the Claude layer.
No write operations documented: The documented use cases cover read-only operations. Avoid assuming write or mutating operations (e.g., deleting S3 objects, modifying IAM policies) are supported unless verified in the source.
Rate limits: CloudWatch Logs Insights and Cost Explorer both have AWS-side API rate limits. High-frequency queries in a single session may hit throttling.
npx cold start: Using npx aws-mcp fetches the package on first run if not cached. In low-connectivity environments, consider installing globally with npm install -g aws-mcp.