Filtering the AWS CLI with jq

The JSON-formatted output of the AWS CLI may sometimes feel daunting, especially with a large number of objects. Running 'aws ec2 describe-instances' with more than 10 instances? Bad idea :)

Fortunately, jq - the self-proclaimed 'sed for JSON data' - is a pretty simple way to filter this output. This will especially come in handy when writing automation scripts :)

Installing jq is one command away:
$ sudo apt-get install jq (Debian / Ubuntu)
$ yum install jq (CentOS)
$ brew install jq (MacOS)

Let's fire up a few EC2 instances and try the following examples.

Show only one field, OwnerId:
$ aws ec2 describe-instances | jq '.Reservations[].OwnerId'

Show all information on the first instance:
$ aws ec2 describe-instances | jq '.Reservations[].Instance[0]'

Show the instance id and the IP address of the first instance:

$ aws ec2 describe-instances | jq '.Reservations[].Instances[0] | {InstanceId, PublicIpAddress}'

{
"InstanceId": "i-2181b498",
"PublicIpAddress": "52.31.231.110"
}

Show the instance id and public IP address of all instances:

$ aws ec2 describe-instances | jq '.Reservations[].Instances[] | {InstanceId, PublicIpAddress}'

{
"InstanceId": "i-2181b498",
"PublicIpAddress": "52.31.231.110"
}
{
"InstanceId": "i-2081b499",
"PublicIpAddress": "52.31.208.25"
}
{
"InstanceId": "i-2581b49c",
"PublicIpAddress": "52.31.207.29"
}
{
"InstanceId": "i-2781b49e",
"PublicIpAddress": "52.31.228.234"
}
{
"InstanceId": "i-2681b49f",
"PublicIpAddress": "52.31.230.63"
}

Fields can also be concatenated, like so:
$ aws ec2 describe-instances | jq '.Reservations[].Instances[] | .InstanceId + " " + .PublicIpAddress'
"i-2181b498 52.31.231.110"
"i-2081b499 52.31.208.25"
"i-2581b49c 52.31.207.29"
"i-2781b49e 52.31.228.234"
"i-2681b49f 52.31.230.63"

Show the instance id and launch time of all instances, sorted by IP address:
$ aws ec2 describe-instances | jq '.Reservations[].Instances[] | .PublicIpAddress + " " + .InstanceId + " " +.LaunchTime' | sort
"52.31.207.29 i-2581b49c 2015-11-16T19:14:57.000Z"
"52.31.208.25 i-2081b499 2015-11-16T19:14:57.000Z"
"52.31.228.234 i-2781b49e 2015-11-16T19:14:57.000Z"
"52.31.230.63 i-2681b49f 2015-11-16T19:14:57.000Z"
"52.31.231.110 i-2181b498 2015-11-16T19:14:57.000Z"

All, let's add an 'environment' tag on all instances, set to either 'dev' or 'prod'.

Now, how about the instance id and IP address of all instances with a 'prod' tag:
$ aws ec2 describe-instances | jq '.Reservations[].Instances[] | select(.Tags[].Value=="prod") | .InstanceId + " " + .PublicIpAddress'
"i-2581b49c 52.31.207.29"
"i-2781b49e 52.31.228.234"
"i-2681b49f 52.31.230.63"

We barely scratched the surface, but I'm sure you get the idea. Make sure you add this nifty tool to your collection!

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.