AWS MCP Server

Official

AWS Labs' official server suite — current AWS docs, CDK guidance, cost analysis and service tools.

Local serverstdioPythonApache-2.0 7.0k

What is the AWS MCP server?

AWS documentation is vast, constantly changing, and exactly the kind of thing LLMs confidently misremember. AWS Labs' MCP server suite attacks that problem at the source: rather than one monolithic server, it's a family of focused servers — documentation search, CDK guidance, cost analysis, Bedrock knowledge bases, and service-specific tools for DynamoDB, S3, Lambda and more — each installable independently via uvx.

The documentation server is the load-bearing one. It searches and reads current AWS docs, so "what's the cold-start behaviour of Lambda SnapStart for Python?" gets answered from today's documentation instead of a two-year-old memory of it. For a platform that ships hundreds of changes a month, that recency is the difference between guidance and folklore.

The CDK and Terraform servers add prescriptive infrastructure-as-code patterns with security checks (cdk-nag integration) — ask for "a serverless API with DynamoDB and proper IAM" and the guidance follows AWS's own well-architected patterns. The cost server explains and forecasts spend, which pairs dangerously well with the honesty of an assistant that reads your actual bill.

Being AWS, credentials follow the standard chain (profiles, IAM roles, SSO) — the servers use whatever access your environment already has, so scope with IAM as you would any tool. Start with the docs server (zero AWS credentials needed) and add service servers as workflows demand. For anyone building on AWS with an assistant, the docs server alone eliminates a whole genre of hallucinated-API pain.

Scoping and safety

  • Run the documentation server on its own first. It reads only public docs and needs no credentials, which makes it trivial to justify adding to a team's shared config.
  • Give credentialed servers a dedicated read-only profile instead of your admin role. AWS_PROFILE is read per server entry, so one assistant can hold docs plus read-only DynamoDB and nothing more.
  • Cost Explorer bills per API request, so open-ended "break down all my spend" questions against the cost server are not free. Ask with an explicit time range and dimension.
  • Keep @latest in the uvx args — AWS Labs ships to this repo constantly, and new service-specific servers appear there faster than any list of them stays accurate.

What you can do with it

Doc-grounded AWS answers

Service behaviour, quotas and APIs answered from current docs, not memory.

IaC with guardrails

CDK and Terraform patterns that follow AWS's own architectural guidance.

Bill archaeology

"Why did costs jump last month?" answered from real billing data.

Available tools

ToolWhat it does
search_documentationSearch current AWS documentation
read_documentationRead a docs page as markdown
recommendRelated documentation recommendations
(suite) CDK / Terraform guidanceIaC patterns with security checks, via dedicated servers
(suite) cost analysisUnderstand and forecast AWS spend, via the cost server

How to install the AWS MCP server

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "aws-docs": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["awslabs.aws-documentation-mcp-server@latest"]
    }
  }
}

The docs server needs no AWS credentials. Service servers (DynamoDB, S3…) use your standard AWS credential chain.

Configuration

Python with uv. Docs server: no credentials. Service/cost servers: standard AWS credential chain with IAM scoping.

VariableDescriptionRequired
AWS_PROFILEAWS profile for credentialed service serversOptional
AWS_REGIONDefault region for service operationse.g. us-east-1Optional

Example prompts to try

  • Search AWS docs: current S3 Express One Zone consistency guarantees.
  • Design a CDK stack for a queue-worker pattern with DLQ and sensible alarms.
  • What drove my EC2 cost increase over the last two months?

Frequently asked questions

The documentation server doesn't — it only reads public docs. Service servers (DynamoDB, S3, cost analysis) use your standard credential chain, so IAM policy is your scoping tool.