Install tooling

Progress checklist

AWS CLI at or above the minimum version
jq available for demo.sh
Profile and Region exports ready

Overview

Install and version-check these tools before Prerequisites and the walkthrough. The harness Docker container runs on the lab EC2 instance — you do not need Docker on your laptop.

Version matrix

Tool	Minimum	Notes
AWS CLI v2	2.15.0	Directory-bucket / Express APIs need a current v2. Latest stable is fine.
jq	1.6+	`scripts/demo.sh` reads `.lab-state.json`
Session Manager plugin	optional	Needed only for `./scripts/demo.sh port-forward` (local dashboard)
Docker	—	On EC2 only — harness image runs on the instance after bootstrap

Install AWS CLI v2

Follow the official install guide.

curl -fsSL https://awscli.amazonaws.com/v2/install.sh | bash
export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"
aws --version

curl "https://awscli.amazonaws.com/awscli-exe-linux-x86_64.zip" -o "awscliv2.zip"
unzip awscliv2.zip
mkdir -p "$HOME/.local/bin" "$HOME/.local/share/aws-cli"
./aws/install \
  --bin-dir "$HOME/.local/bin" \
  --install-dir "$HOME/.local/share/aws-cli" \
  --update
export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"
aws --version

Put export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH" in your shell profile so an older system CLI cannot shadow it. Use awscli-exe-linux-aarch64.zip on ARM.

curl "https://awscli.amazonaws.com/awscli-exe-linux-x86_64.zip" -o "awscliv2.zip"
unzip awscliv2.zip
sudo ./aws/install --update
aws --version

Confirm the version

which aws
aws --version

Looks like (version numbers vary — must be ≥ 2.15.0):

~/.local/bin/aws
aws-cli/2.36.38 Python/3.14.6 Linux/… exe/x86_64.…

Gate check:

aws --version
# expect: aws-cli/2.… with version >= 2.15.0

python3 - <<'PY'
import subprocess
v = subprocess.check_output(["aws", "--version"], text=True)
parts = v.split("/")[1].split(" ")[0].split(".")
maj, minor = int(parts[0]), int(parts[1])
assert (maj, minor) >= (2, 15), v
print("ok:", v.strip())
PY

Install jq

# Fedora / RHEL-family example — use your distro equivalents
sudo dnf install -y jq
jq --version

Looks like:

jq-1.7.1

Configure the profile

aws configure sso --profile sandbox
# or reuse an existing SSO profile named sandbox
export AWS_PROFILE=sandbox
export AWS_REGION=ap-southeast-2
aws sts get-caller-identity

demo.sh refuses to run without both variables set, and refuses AWS CLI versions below 2.15.0.

Optional — for SSM port-forward to the dashboard:

session-manager-plugin --version
# if missing, install:
# https://docs.aws.amazon.com/systems-manager/latest/userguide/session-manager-working-with-install-plugin.html

Continue to Prerequisites, then Architecture.