🔌 aws-mcp-connector

Talk to AWS CLI from an MCP-speaking agent.

A single static Go binary that speaks the Model Context Protocol and lets an agent run AWS CLI commands: any aws <service> <operation> invocation, across every service the CLI supports, with a read-only-by-default safety gate on anything that mutates state.

No Python, no uv, no runtime dependency to install — just a binary and an .mcp.json. It shells out to the aws binary already installed and configured on the host (profile, SSO, IAM role, or static keys — whatever the AWS CLI's own credential chain resolves) instead of reimplementing the AWS SDK, so it gets the full breadth of the CLI for free rather than a hand-curated subset of services.

✨ Why this exists

An agent that only has a narrow, hand-picked set of AWS tools hits a wall the moment you need something outside that set. This connector instead wraps the AWS CLI itself, so an agent can run aws s3 ls, aws ec2 describe-instances, aws iam list-users — anything the CLI can do — without waiting on a new tool to be written for it. Mutating commands are blocked by default and require both a server-level opt-in and a per-call confirm=true, so exploring/debugging is safe out of the box.

🧰 Tools

Tool	What it does	Write?
`aws_exec`	Run any `aws <service> <operation> ...` command. Read-only by default — mutating commands need `AWS_MCP_ALLOW_WRITE=true` on the server and `confirm=true` on the call.	✅ (gated)
`aws_help`	Show `aws <service> [subcommand] help` text — always safe, use it to check exact syntax before calling `aws_exec`.
`aws_whoami`	Show the AWS identity (account, ARN, user/role) the configured credentials resolve to.
`aws_list_profiles`	List named profiles configured in `~/.aws/config` on the host.

Every tool accepts an optional response_format: markdown (default, pretty tables for a chat UI) or json (for programmatic use).

🚀 Quickstart

Fastest path: grab a prebuilt bundle from the latest release — download aws-mcp-connector-plugin-<version>-<os>-<arch>.zip, unzip it, and point Cowork/Claude at the plugin/ folder inside (see step 4 of SETUP.md). No Go toolchain required.

From source:

# 1. Build
cd go-server
go mod tidy
go build -o aws-connector-server .
cp aws-connector-server ../plugin/servers/go/

# 2. Set up auth — needs the aws CLI itself installed and configured
#    (aws configure / aws sso login) — see SETUP.md
export AWS_PROFILE=default   # optional, only if not using "default"

# 3. Run
./go-server/aws-connector-server   # serves MCP over stdio

Or make build — see the Makefile for every shortcut (test, vet, fmt, lint, tidy).

Full walkthrough — including wiring this up as a Claude/Cowork plugin — is in SETUP.md.

🔐 Configuration

Everything is environment variables, passed through by the plugin's .mcp.json:

Variable	Purpose	Default
`AWS_PROFILE`	Named profile from `~/.aws/config` to use.	unset (default profile)
`AWS_REGION`	Default region if not set elsewhere.	AWS CLI's own default
`AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID` / `AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY` / `AWS_SESSION_TOKEN`	Static credentials — only needed if not using a profile/SSO/role.	unset
`AWS_MCP_ALLOW_WRITE`	`"true"` to permit mutating commands at all (still needs `confirm=true` per call).	`false` (read-only)
`AWS_MCP_ALLOWED_SERVICES`	Comma-separated allowlist of AWS CLI service names, e.g. `"s3,ec2"`.	unset (unrestricted)
`AWS_MCP_CLI_PATH`	Path to the `aws` binary.	`aws` resolved via `PATH`

🧪 Quality bar

This isn't a toy script — it's got the same checks you'd expect from a production Go service:

✅ Unit tests for every input-validation path (go test ./...)
✅ go vet + gofmt clean
✅ golangci-lint (govet, staticcheck, errcheck, gosec, and more)
✅ govulncheck — no known vulnerabilities in the dependency graph
✅ CodeQL static security analysis on every push
✅ End-to-end verified against a real (or sandboxed) AWS CLI backend — not mocks
✅ Dependabot keeps Go modules and Actions current

All of it runs in CI on every push and PR.

🏷️ Releases & versioning

Versions follow semver and are cut automatically by release-please from Conventional Commits on main:

fix: ... → patch (v0.1.0 → v0.1.1)
feat: ... → minor (v0.1.1 → v0.2.0)
feat!: ... / BREAKING CHANGE: footer → major (v0.2.0 → v1.0.0)

Every merged PR updates a standing "chore(main): release vX.Y.Z" PR with an auto-generated CHANGELOG.md. Merging that PR:

tags the release and publishes it on GitHub
builds and attaches zipped, ready-to-install plugin bundles for linux/darwin/windows × amd64/arm64
regenerates server.json from those exact assets (fresh version + SHA-256 hashes) and publishes it to the official MCP Registry via mcp-publisher, authenticated with GitHub OIDC — no stored secrets

See .github/workflows/release-please.yml and .github/workflows/publish-mcp-registry.yml (also runnable by hand for an existing tag via workflow_dispatch).

📁 Layout

aws-mcp-connector/
├── README.md                  ← you are here
├── SETUP.md                   ← step-by-step setup guide
├── CONTRIBUTING.md             ← how to contribute
├── CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md
├── SECURITY.md                 ← vulnerability reporting
├── CODEOWNERS
├── LICENSE                     ← MIT
├── Makefile                    ← build / test / lint shortcuts
├── .golangci.yml                ← lint rules
├── release-please-config.json  ← semver/changelog automation config
├── .release-please-manifest.json
├── server.json                  ← MCP Registry manifest (regenerated fresh per release by CI)
├── scripts/
│   └── render-server-json.sh    ← rebuilds server.json from a release's zip assets
├── .github/
│   ├── workflows/
│   │   ├── ci.yml                     ← build, vet, test, lint, govulncheck
│   │   ├── codeql.yml                 ← security scanning
│   │   ├── pr-title.yml               ← Conventional Commits PR title check
│   │   ├── release-please.yml         ← version PRs, tagging, GitHub releases
│   │   ├── publish-mcp-registry.yml   ← publishes server.json to the MCP Registry
│   │   └── rebuild-release-assets.yml ← manual re-attach fallback
│   ├── ISSUE_TEMPLATE/
│   ├── PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md
│   └── dependabot.yml
├── go-server/                  ← the MCP server source
│   ├── main.go
│   ├── main_test.go
│   ├── go.mod / go.sum
│   └── README.md
└── plugin/                     ← installable Cowork/Claude plugin
    ├── .claude-plugin/plugin.json
    ├── .mcp.json                ← holds credentials locally — never commit real ones
    └── servers/go/              ← compiled binary goes here

🤝 Contributing

PRs and issues are very welcome — see CONTRIBUTING.md for the full guide (setup, coding conventions, how to add a new tool) and the Code of Conduct.

main is protected: every change, including the maintainer's, lands via pull request with CI green. PR titles must follow Conventional Commits — that's what drives the automatic versioning above.

Found a security issue? Please follow SECURITY.md instead of opening a public issue.

aws mcp connector