Install amazon-ecs-cli with Homebrew, MacPorts

Project links

• Homepage
• Repository

Commands and aliases

• ecs-cli

Project history

The aws/amazon-ecs-cli repository was created in September 2015. Its README describes a CLI for Amazon ECS that provides high-level commands for creating, updating, and monitoring clusters and tasks from a local development environment, as an alternative to using the AWS Management Console or lower-level AWS CLI commands.

The project tracked major ECS platform features through its changelog: named profiles and Windows support in 1.0.0, Fargate support in 1.1.0, service discovery, private registry credentials, Docker Compose v3 support, local commands, FireLens, EFS, and AWS Graviton2 support by the final 1.21.0 release line.

Adoption history

The ECS CLI fit a specific packaging niche: developers wanted a small binary that translated familiar Docker Compose workflows into ECS resources before broader opinionated deployment CLIs existed. Homebrew packaging made it especially convenient for macOS and Linux developers working against ECS and Fargate.

AWS later placed AWS Copilot at the top of the ECS CLI README, describing Copilot as a generally available CLI for building, releasing, and operating container apps on ECS and Fargate. The GitHub repository metadata now marks amazon-ecs-cli as archived, which makes it a historical package for older ECS workflows rather than the forward-looking AWS container CLI.

How it is used

Users configured AWS credentials, region, cluster name, ECS profiles, and cluster configurations, then used commands such as ecs-cli configure, ecs-cli up, ecs-cli compose service up, ecs-cli ps, and ecs-cli logs. The README documents configuration storage in ~/.ecs on macOS/Linux and C:\Users\<username>\AppData\local\ecs on Windows, with optional use of ~/.aws/credentials through --aws-profile or AWS_PROFILE.

The tool mattered most when a project already had docker-compose.yml and ecs-params.yml files and wanted an incremental path to ECS tasks and services. For new AWS workflows, the README's Copilot banner is the key adoption signal: AWS redirected the developer-experience story to Copilot while leaving ECS CLI for compatibility.

Why package nerds care

Amazon ECS CLI is a classic cloud CLI lifecycle package: very useful during a platform transition, then effectively superseded while still present in package indexes for users with old automation.

It is also a reminder that package-manager descriptions can outlive a tool's strategic status. The binary still documents install links and configuration behavior, but the upstream repository being archived changes how maintainers should frame it.

Timeline

• 2015-09-30: aws/amazon-ecs-cli repository is created.
• 2017: v1.0.0 adds named ECS profiles, cluster configurations, and Windows support.
• 2017: v1.1.0 adds AWS Fargate support.
• 2020-07-07: v1.20.0 adds EFS support in compose up workflows.
• 2020-12-21: v1.21.0 adds container dependencies and Graviton2 instance support.
• 2025: GitHub metadata shows the repository archived.

Related projects

• AWS CLI provides the lower-level ECS API command surface.
• AWS Copilot CLI is the AWS-recommended successor-style developer CLI for container applications on ECS and Fargate.
• Docker Compose and ecs-params.yml are central adjacent formats for ECS CLI workflows.

Sources

• https://api.github.com/repos/aws/amazon-ecs-cli
• https://api.github.com/repos/aws/amazon-ecs-cli/releases?per_page=5
• https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aws/amazon-ecs-cli/master/CHANGELOG.md
• https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aws/amazon-ecs-cli/master/README.md