Amazon Q

Boost Productivity with Amazon Q for Development

1. History

๐Ÿš€ Key milestones in the evolution of Amazon Q

gantt
    title Amazon Q Development Timeline
    dateFormat YYYY-MM-DD
    axisFormat %b %Y

    section .
    Amazon Q Announced                 :q_announce, 2023-11-28, 5d
    Developer GA (CLI & IDE Agent)     :q_ga, 2024-04-30, 5d
    GitHub Integration Preview         :q_github, 2025-05-05, 5d

2. Ways to Use

  • ๐Ÿ’ป CLI โ€“ Terminal-based interaction (Q CLI)
  • ๐Ÿง  IDE Extension โ€“ VS Code / JetBrains with Q Developer tools
  • ๐ŸŒ AWS Console โ€“ Context-aware help directly in the UI
  • ๐Ÿข Q Business โ€“ Chat interface for internal company data (web-based)

3. Installation

๐Ÿ’ป Quick Setup

Install Amazon Q CLI for your OS or environment:
๐Ÿ”— https://docs.aws.amazon.com/amazonq/latest/qdeveloper-ug/command-line-installing.html

๐Ÿณ Dev Container Support

To use Amazon Q CLI inside a Dev Container, add this to your devcontainer.json:

{
  "image": "mcr.microsoft.com/devcontainers/base:ubuntu",
  "features": {
    "ghcr.io/jajera/features/amazon-q-cli:1": {}
  }
}

This installs Amazon Q CLI using a custom Dev Container Feature you can reuse across projects.

4. How to Use Amazon Q CLI

๐Ÿงช Try These Commands

# Ask a question
q ask "How do I enable versioning on an S3 bucket?"

# Explain an error
q explain "AccessDeniedException from Lambda"

# Generate a script
q generate "Bash script to create an EC2 instance with CLI"

# Start an interactive chat session
q chat

๐Ÿ’ก Pro Tip

Use q chat for a persistent conversational session โ€” like talking to a CLI-native dev assistant.

5. Good and Bad Habits

โœ… Good Habits

  • Be specific with your requests
  • Iterate for accuracy
  • Test in dev environment first
  • Use Q as a collaborator, not a crutch

โŒ Bad Habits

  • Copy code blindly
  • Ask vague questions
  • Ignore official documentation
  • Let Q replace your own reasoning

6. Watchouts

โš ๏ธ Q can accelerate your work โ€” but it should never replace your understanding.

๐Ÿง  Be aware of๊ž‰

  • ๐Ÿช„ Learn how to prompt effectively โ†’ promptingguide.ai
  • ๐Ÿ” Always validate suggestions before using them
  • ๐Ÿ“… Some outputs may be outdated (based on training data)
  • ๐ŸŒ€ LLMs can hallucinate or invent APIs
  • โœ… Trust, but always verify โ€” especially before deploying

7. Example and Demo

Here's a real-world output generated by Amazon Q CLI:

๐ŸŽฎ Kiwi Memory Game โ€” a JavaScript-based browser game scaffolded entirely via q chat.

๐Ÿ”— github.com/jajera/q-kiwi-memory-game

๐ŸŽฎ Kiwi Maze Game โ€” a JavaScript-based browser game scaffolded entirely via q chat.

๐Ÿ”— github.com/jajera/q-kiwi-maze-game

Thank You๏น—

Questions?

References