Amazon Q Developer CLI: My experience with the new command-line functionalities

As usual, I was browsing articles on the AWS News Blog when I came across AWS Weekly Roundup. For me, it's an essential resource—an efficient summary of AWS updates.

This time, one announcement particularly caught my attention: the improvement of the Amazon Q Developer CLI agent.

Amazon Q Developer CLI

Amazon Q Developer has just upgraded its CLI agent, bringing an interactive and dynamic experience directly to the command line. This agent leverages artificial intelligence and takes advantage of the step-by-step reasoning features of Claude 3.7 Sonnet to assist developers.

Now, instead of merely suggesting instructions, the CLI agent can directly execute commands using the tools installed on the system, making development smoother and more efficient.

Notable improvements include:
✅ Advanced collaboration through interactive conversations
✅ Context analysis to optimize workflows
✅ Integration with AWS resources

What exactly is Amazon Q Developer CLI?

Amazon defines Amazon Q Developer as:

In an IDE, Amazon Q can:

• Analyze and improve code

• Detect security vulnerabilities

• Assist with debugging

• Optimize code

But what we're focusing on here is its use in the command line. At the time of writing this article, this feature is only available on macOS and Linux.

With the CLI interface, Amazon Q notably offers:

• q translate: converts a natural language instruction into shell code

• q doctor: diagnoses and resolves command-line errors

• Natural language interaction for contextual help through the q chat command

It’s this last feature that caught my attention and motivated me to experiment with it.

How to use it ?

I enjoy automating certain tasks whenever possible to make my work more efficient. What better way to explore a new command-line tool than with Amazon Q Developer CLI? Another goal for 2025 is to get back into C#.

So, I interacted with the Amazon Q Developer CLI by submitting the following prompt:

I'm an AWS architect who previously worked as a .NET software architect, last working in 2016.
My preferred language was C#, but I still occasionally used VB.NET.
Now, in 2025, I want to create a C# CLI application with .NET Core.
I also want to use the latest version of the .NET SDK for .NET Core.
As you can see, I'm currently using macOS, and I'd like to know how to proceed.

It’s important to note that, at the time of writing this article, Amazon Q Developer only supports interactions in English.

My first experimentation

Launching Amazon Q CLI using the q chat command. Right away, I’m presented with a list of available commands, and I take this opportunity to submit my prompt.

Q responds with relevant information and suggests running a command to check for any missing prerequisites.

Step by step, Q guides me through the process and even suggests suitable IDEs.

Amazon Q provided me with complete instructions to set up my development environment. Very convenient, but I was curious to dig deeper and experiment with its interactive assistant. And what better way to do that than with another test?

I’m also sharing a video that showcases these initial experiments in detail.

Second experiment : interactive installation

This time, I rephrased my request, specifying that I wanted step-by-step assistance to install the necessary tools.

I'm an AWS architect who previously worked as a .NET software architect, with my last experience in 2016.
My preferred language was C#, but I occasionally used VB.NET.
Now, in 2025, I want to create a C# CLI application using .NET Core. I also want to use the latest version of the .NET SDK for .NET Core.
As you can see, I'm currently using macOS, and I'd like to know how to proceed.

If possible, please provide complete instructions to set up my laptop.

This time, Amazon Q guided me through the installation of the latest .NET SDK and even generated a project with a ready-to-use structure, explaining each step.

The first step is similar to my first attempt: validating the prerequisites.

Q then suggested installing .NET using Homebrew, detecting that I had it already installed. It then assisted me with the installation and configuration of the prerequisites.

It then suggested creating the project, which I initially declined. Later, when I asked for it, it generated the structure and provided a concise explanation.

I’m also sharing a video that provides a detailed look at these new experiments.

What’s next ?

From there, I just need to validate the code generated by Amazon Q and ensure it follows best practices.

Since I haven’t coded in C# since 2016, this is a great opportunity to get back up to speed! Luckily, I can once again rely on Amazon Q to analyze and optimize my code.

However, to maintain a critical mindset, I’ll complement it with research and reading to verify the suggestions and explanations provided by Amazon Q Developer.

A perfect topic for my next blog post… Stay tuned! 🚀

Some references related to my article

• A lightning fast, new agentic coding experience within the Amazon Q Developer CLI : https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/devops/introducing-the-enhanced-command-line-interface-in-amazon-q-developer/?trk=e61dee65-4ce8-4738-84db-75305c9cd4fe&sc_channel=el

• AWS Weekly : https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/aws-weekly-roundup-amazon-q-cli-agent-aws-step-functions-aws-lambda-and-more-march-10-2025/