awscurl

What it is and what it does

awscurl is a command-line tool that bridges the gap between curl's simplicity and AWS's mandatory request signing requirement. It wraps HTTP requests in AWS Signature Version 4 signing, automatically handling credential lookup from IAM profiles or explicit keys, then sends the signed request to any AWS service endpoint. The tool accepts curl-like arguments (method, headers, data, output redirection) while adding AWS-specific options for region, service, and credential selection.

The package is built on requests for HTTP transport and boto3/botocore for AWS credential and signing logic, making it a thin orchestration layer. It's designed for developers and operators who want to test AWS APIs from the command line without manually constructing signatures—useful for ad-hoc API exploration, scripting, CI/CD pipelines, or debugging API Gateway and other AWS services that require signed requests.

Use it for:

• Test AWS API Gateway endpoints or Lambda function URLs from the command line with automatic request signing.
• Query S3 buckets, EC2 instances, or other AWS services directly without writing Python code or using the AWS CLI.
• Automate AWS API calls in shell scripts or CI/CD pipelines where curl-like syntax is more natural than SDK calls.
• Debug signed requests to AWS services by inspecting headers and responses with verbose output.
• Integrate AWS API calls into existing curl-based workflows or monitoring systems.

Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying

A curl-like command-line tool that automatically signs and sends HTTP requests to AWS services using AWS Signature Version 4, handling credential management from IAM profiles or explicit keys.

Yes. The package solves a real friction point—making signed AWS API requests from the command line—with low install overhead, active maintenance, no known vulnerabilities, and permissive licensing. It's especially useful for developers who prefer curl-style interfaces or need to integrate AWS calls into shell scripts. The 902 GitHub stars and top-15000 PyPI position indicate established adoption.

Install

awscurl on PyPI

pip install awscurl

uv add awscurl

poetry add awscurl

Installing awscurl

Before you install

Low install friction with a pure Python wheel distribution. Active maintenance with a recent release (62 days ago) and steady repository activity. Depends on well-established libraries (requests, boto3, botocore, urllib3) that are widely used and stable.

License in practice

MIT license permits free use, modification, and distribution with minimal restrictions, making it suitable for both open-source and commercial projects.

Quickstart

pip install awscurl

# List S3 bucket content with automatic request signing
awscurl --service s3 'https://bucket-name.s3.amazonaws.com'

# Or use IAM profile credentials from ~/.aws/credentials
awscurl --profile my-profile --service ec2 'https://ec2.amazonaws.com?Action=DescribeRegions&Version=2013-10-15'

Requires AWS credentials available either as command-line arguments, environment variables (AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID, AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY, AWS_PROFILE), or in ~/.aws/credentials file.

Verify before relying

• Whether Python version requirements are enforced or if the package works across all modern Python versions despite unspecified support.
• Real-world performance characteristics when signing large request payloads or making high-frequency API calls.

Package facts

Evidence: awscurl-0.44-py3-none-any.whl

Tags

More Utilities packages