AWS Documentation MCP Server

AWS Documentation MCP Server

The AWS Documentation MCP Server provides real-time access to the latest official AWS documentation and API references, enabling AI assistants and coding tools to retrieve authoritative information and up-to-date technical guidance directly within their workflows or chat interfaces.

Author: awslabs


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What is AWS Documentation MCP Server?

The AWS Documentation MCP Server is a lightweight MCP server that connects AI applications—such as code assistants, chatbots, and developer environments—to the most current AWS service documentation. It acts as a bridge, allowing models and agents to programmatically look up service guides, API details, best practices, and contextual explanations for AWS services, thus ensuring accurate and relevant support during development or troubleshooting.

How to Configure the AWS Documentation MCP Server

  1. Ensure you have uv (from Astral) and Python (e.g., 3.10) installed on your system.
  2. Configure your AWS credentials as needed for documentation access (no privileged permissions required).
  3. Add the AWS Documentation MCP Server entry to your MCP client configuration file. Example configuration snippet:
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "awslabs.aws-documentation-mcp-server": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "awslabs.aws-documentation-mcp-server@latest"
      ],
      "env": {
        "FASTMCP_LOG_LEVEL": "ERROR"
      },
      "disabled": false,
      "autoApprove": []
    }
  }
}
  1. For use in editors or tools like Amazon Q CLI, Cline, Cursor, or Windsurf, update the corresponding MCP configuration file (e.g., ~/.aws/amazonq/mcp.json, .cursor/mcp.json, or ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json) following the structure above.
  2. Restart your MCP-enabled client or tool to load the server.

How to Use the AWS Documentation MCP Server

  • Once configured and enabled in your Agent or development tool, you can prompt the agent to use the Documentation MCP Server for technical lookups.
  • For coding assistants or chat interfaces, simply ask questions like "Show me the latest API reference for Amazon S3" or "What are the best practices for configuring VPCs on AWS?" and the agent will call the MCP server to fetch exact information from AWS docs.
  • In most tools, you can manually select or prompt the use of this server by specifying: "Using the Documentation MCP Server, explain x," or by selecting it from the available tool list before asking your question.
  • Advanced usage includes leveraging available tool endpoints from the Documentation MCP Server for programmatic or automated document queries in workflows.

Key Features

  • Real-time and Up-to-date: Always retrieves the latest AWS documentation and API changes, eliminating concerns about outdated knowledge.
  • Authoritative Source: Fetches officially published service guides, developer references, and best practice recommendations.
  • Seamless Integration: Easily pluggable into multiple clients (e.g., coding assistants, IDEs, chatbots) via the unified MCP interface.
  • Contextual Responses: Enables AI assistants to provide context-aware, accurate, and technically precise explanations.
  • Enhances Output Quality: Reduces hallucination and increases the accuracy of AI-generated answers and code for AWS.
  • Easy Setup: Requires minimal configuration and does not require special AWS permissions.

Use Cases

  • Support AI Coding Assistants: Enhance developer productivity by providing real-time AWS service references, SDK details, and configuration examples during code writing.
  • AI-powered Q&A and Chatbots: Equip conversational agents with direct access to AWS documentation for technical support and onboarding.
  • DevOps and Cloud Engineering: Quickly verify infrastructure specifications, limits, and service integrations without manual doc searching.
  • Educational Scenarios: Power training tools or classroom bots with accurate AWS documentation links and summaries.
  • Documentation Automation: Programmatic extraction of code snippets, usage samples, or rules for automated document generation and review.
  • Security & Compliance Auditing: Reference authoritative best practices for compliance reviews or IaC validation.

FAQ

Q1: Does the AWS Documentation MCP Server require special AWS permissions to run?
A1: No. Accessing AWS documentation online does not require privileged AWS credentials. Standard AWS credentials for identity or limited API usage (if required by your environment) are sufficient.

Q2: How current is the documentation retrieved by the server?
A2: The server fetches the most up-to-date documentation available from AWS, ensuring you always have the latest guidance, API changes, and best practices.

Q3: Can this be used offline?
A3: No. The AWS Documentation MCP Server requires internet connectivity to access and retrieve the latest AWS online documentation. Caching strategies may be considered for advanced/offline scenarios.

Q4: What types of documentation or data can I retrieve?
A4: You can access full service guides, API references, best practice documents, SDK usage examples, and context-specific official AWS recommendations.

Q5: Is this server safe to use in enterprise environments?
A5: Yes. The server does not require access to any of your AWS resources or data, and only retrieves public documentation. Always review and ensure compliance with internal policies before deployment.