AWS Emulator is a free, local stand-in for Amazon Web Services that runs offline on your own machine. AWS released it on November 11, 2026 so developers and coding agents can test cloud code without an AWS account or a bill. Notably, AI agents wrote and tested all of its code.
AWS Emulator at a glance
Price | Free, runs offline |
|---|---|
Coverage | 200+ AWS services, built from 400+ API models |
Platforms | Linux packages (RPM, Debian); macOS and Windows via Docker |
License | CC0 public domain (vendored code under Apache 2.0) |
Made by | Amazon Web Services |
What AWS Emulator does
Point the AWS CLI or any AWS SDK at the emulator and your code talks to local versions of AWS services instead of the real cloud. It runs in two modes: a server mode (HTTPS on 127.0.0.1:9297) for any language, and an embedded mode for Rust tests where each test gets its own isolated instance. AWS says agents check its behavior against real AWS with fidelity tests, and every change passes a merge gate that includes security review agents.
What you can do with it
Let a coding agent build and test against S3, SQS and other services without touching your account.
Run cloud integration tests in CI with no credentials and no cost.
Prototype infrastructure code offline.
How to get started
For coding agents, install the skill with aws agent-toolkit add-skill --skill-name aws-emulator --region us-east-1 (AWS CLI 2.35.0 or later). On Linux, install the RPM or Debian package and run aws-emulator. On macOS and Windows, run it in Docker using the short Dockerfile in the README.
What to know
It's for building and testing, not production.
It isn't a perfect copy of AWS: the repository keeps a "things-that-do-not-work" folder listing known differences, and per-service fidelity is on the releases page.
Building from source needs Linux, a Rust toolchain and at least 100 GB of free disk space.
Our take
Coding agents are only as good as the feedback loop you give them, and "deploy to AWS to find out" is a slow, expensive loop. A free, offline AWS that agents can hammer on is a big quality-of-life win, and the fact that agents built it is a striking proof of what they can do with a good test harness. Check the known-gaps folder before trusting it for edge cases.
AWS Emulator alternatives
OpenSandbox: isolated sandboxes for agents that run code.
Paradev: run several coding agents in parallel, each in its own worktree.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need an AWS account?
No. The emulator runs entirely on your machine.
Can I use it on a Mac?
Yes, through Docker. Native packages are Linux only.
As featured in World of AI
Google's new API scores answers instead of writing them (Nov 11, 2026)
Facts checked against AWS's launch post and the official repository on November 13, 2026.
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