Configure the AWS CLI

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Goal

After this page you will run aws sts get-caller-identity from your terminal and see the cli-admin user echoed back.

Prerequisites

• AWS CLI installed
• Access key CSV downloaded

Run aws configure

Open the access key CSV from the previous page. Then in your terminal:

aws configure

The CLI prompts for four values. Fill them in:

AWS Access Key ID [None]: <paste Access key ID from the CSV>
AWS Secret Access Key [None]: <paste Secret access key from the CSV>
Default region name [None]: ap-southeast-1
Default output format [None]: json

Pick the region you'll use for the rest of the tier. The S3 bucket and CloudFront distribution will live there. Common picks:

• ap-southeast-1 — Singapore
• us-east-1 — N. Virginia (cheapest CloudFront pricing, default for many AWS examples)
• eu-west-1 — Ireland

If you don't have a preference, pick us-east-1 — every AWS example you'll meet later defaults to it.

Where the credentials live

aws configure wrote two files into ~/.aws/:

~/.aws/credentials   # access key id + secret access key
~/.aws/config        # default region + output format

The CLI reads these on every command. The CSV from the previous page can now be deleted from your Downloads folder — the credentials live in ~/.aws/credentials.

Verify

aws sts get-caller-identity

Expected output (your numbers will differ):

{
    "UserId": "AIDAEXAMPLEUSERID",
    "Account": "123456789012",
    "Arn": "arn:aws:iam::123456789012:user/cli-admin"
}

The Arn ending in user/cli-admin confirms you're signed in as the new user, not the root account. STS (Security Token Service) is the AWS service that answers "who am I?" — get-caller-identity is the canonical sanity check.

Next → S3 in plain language