How to create programmatic access user in AWS

Programmatic access user in IAM is required if you want to control or access your AWS services from the command line via AWS CLI tools. A programmatic access user will be given AWS Access Key ID and AWS Secret Access Key which your AWS CLI tools will use to authenticate to AWS and execute your commands.

Programmatic access user for AWS can be created from the IAM dashboard.

1. Go to IAM section in your AWS Console.

   Related: Identity and Access Management

2. Go to Users section by clicking on the Users hyperlink on the left sidebar.
3. Click on the Add user button to add a new user.
4. Enter User name and tick on Programmatic access checkbox in Access type section. Click on Next: Permissions button once done.
5. Configure permission for the user.

   The following example is to give the user full access to S3.

   1. Click on Attach existing policies directly.
   2. Type s3 in Filter policies and tick the AmazonS3FullAccess row checkbox's. Click on the Next: Tags button to proceed to the next section.
6. Add tag to the user if required and click on the Next: Review button.
7. Review the previously entered values for the user and click on the Create user button at the bottom of the page. .
8. The newly created user will be listed on the table with User and Access key ID displayed. Click on the Show hyperlink to display the user's Secret access key.

   You successfully created the users shown below. You can view and download user security credentials. You can also email users instructions for signing in to the AWS Management Console. This is the last time these credentials will be available to download. However, you can create new credentials at any time.

   Users with AWS Management Console access can sign-in at: https://unique-id.signin.aws.amazon.com/console

9. Click on the Download .csv button to download the user info in CSV format.
10. View the downloaded CSV file using your favorite program.
11. Use the information to configure your AWS CLI tools.

    Related: How to configure AWS CLI tool on Linux and macOS