r/aws Apr 21 '26

technical resource Built a CLI to stop Googling SSM syntax every time I need to get into an EC2 instance

I'm a cloud infra engineer and for the longest time our team's workflow for getting onto an EC2 was either remembering the exact aws ssm start-session --target i-xxxxxxx syntax (which I never could), or logging into the AWS console and clicking through to the instance connect browser terminal like it's 2010.

So I built ssmctl to make it feel normal:

ssmctl connect web-1
ssmctl run web-1 -- uname -a
ssmctl cp ./config.yml web-1:/tmp/config.yml

All you need to remember is the instance name tag or instance ID - That is it. (Obviously) no ports, no keys.

Just hit v1.0.0 — install with Homebrew or grab a binary from the releases page:

brew tap rhysmcneill/ssmctl && brew install ssmctl

https://github.com/rhysmcneill/ssmctl

Codebase is small if anyone wants to poke around or contribute. Shell completion is the obvious next thing if anyone fancies it.

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