Set up the AWS CLI on MacOS in 60 seconds

I had to do this AGAIN on a new Mac, so here goes:

1) Install Homebrew

$ ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

2) Install python and pip

$ brew install python
$ curl "https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py" -o "get-pip.py"
$ sudo python get-pip.py

3) Install Iterm2 (c'mon, how can you live without it?)

4) Install zsh and oh-my-zsh

$ sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh/master/tools/install.sh)"

5) Install and configure AWS CLI

$ sudo pip install awscli
$ sudo pip install awsebcli (if you work with Elastic Beanstalk)
$ aws configure

6) Enable auto-completion for the AWS CLI in zsh

Open ~/.zshrc and add aws to the list of plugins, e.g.: plugins=(git aws)

$ source ~/.zshrc

7) Test :)

$ aws s3 ls (or any other AWS command that you like!)

About the Author

Julien Simon is the Chief Evangelist at Arcee AI , specializing in Small Language Models and enterprise AI solutions. Recognized as the #1 AI Evangelist globally by AI Magazine in 2021, he brings over 30 years of technology leadership experience to his role.

With 650+ speaking engagements worldwide and 350+ technical blog posts, Julien is a leading voice in practical AI implementation, cost-effective AI solutions, and the democratization of artificial intelligence. His expertise spans open-source AI, Small Language Models, enterprise AI strategy, and edge computing optimization.

Previously serving as Principal Evangelist at Amazon Web Services and Chief Evangelist at Hugging Face, Julien has helped thousands of organizations implement AI solutions that deliver real business value. He is the author of "Learn Amazon SageMaker," the first book ever published on AWS's flagship machine learning service.

Julien's mission is to make AI accessible, understandable, and controllable for enterprises through transparent, open-weights models that organizations can deploy, customize, and trust.