Getting started with AWS Cloud9 - AWS Cloud9
PrerequisitesStep 1: Create an environmentStep 2: Basic tourStep 3: Clean upRelated information

AWS Cloud9 is no longer available to new customers. Existing customers of AWS Cloud9 can continue to use the service as normal. Learn more

Getting started with AWS Cloud9

Use this tutorial to get started with AWS Cloud9. You can use AWS Cloud9 console or AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) to use the AWS Cloud9 IDE. In this tutorial, you'll learn how to set up an AWS Cloud9 development environment, and then use the AWS Cloud9 IDE to code, run, and debug your first application. For more information about AWS Cloud9, see What is AWS Cloud9.

To learn more about AWS Cloud9 IDE, see Tour of the AWS Cloud9 IDE.

This tutorial takes approximately one hour to complete.

Warning

Completing this tutorial might result in charges to your AWS account. These include possible charges for Amazon EC2. For more information, see Amazon EC2 Pricing.

Prerequisites

To successfully complete this tutorial, you must first complete the steps in Setting up AWS Cloud9.

Step 1: Create an environment

In this step, you can use the AWS Cloud9 console or the AWS CLI to create an AWS Cloud9 development environment.

Note

If you already created the environment that you want to use for this tutorial, open that environment and skip ahead to Step 2: Basic tour of the IDE.

In AWS Cloud9, a development environment, or environment, is somewhere where you store your development project's files and run the tools to develop your applications. In this tutorial, you create an EC2 environment, and work with the files and tools in that environment.

Create an EC2 Environment with the console

  1. Sign in to the AWS Cloud9 console:

    • If you're the only one that using your AWS account or you're an IAM user in a single AWS account, go to https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloud9/.

    • If your organization uses AWS IAM Identity Center, ask your AWS account administrator for sign-in instructions.

    • If you're a student in a classroom, ask your instructor for sign-in instructions.

  2. After you sign in to the AWS Cloud9 console, in the top navigation bar choose an AWS Region to create the environment in. For a list of available AWS Regions, see AWS Cloud9 in the AWS General Reference.

    AWS Region selector in the AWS Cloud9 console

  3. Choose the large Create environment button in one of the locations shown.

    If you don't already have AWS Cloud9 environments, the button is shown on a welcome page.

    Welcome page in the AWS Cloud9 console

    If you already have AWS Cloud9 environments, the button is shown as follows.

    Create environment button in the AWS Cloud9 console

  4. On the Create environment page, for Name, enter a name for your environment.

  5. For Description, enter something about your environment. For this tutorial, use This environment is for the AWS Cloud9 tutorial.

  6. For Environment type, choose New EC2 instance to create an Amazon EC2 environment:

    • Existing compute – Launches an existing Amazon EC2 instance that requires SSH login details for which the Amazon EC2 instance must have an inbound security group rule.

      • If you select the Existing compute option, a service role is automatically created. You can view the name of the service role in a note at the bottom of the setup screen.

    Note

    Automatic shutdown will not be available for AWS Cloud9 environments created using an Amazon EC2 instance using existing compute.

    Warning

    Creating an Amazon EC2 instance for your environment might result in possible charges to your AWS account for Amazon EC2. There's no additional cost to use Systems Manager to manage connections to your EC2 instance.

  7. On the New EC2 instance panel for Instance type, keep the default choice. This option might have less RAM and fewer vCPUs. However, this amount of memory is sufficient for this tutorial.

    Warning

    Choosing instance types with more RAM and vCPUs might result in additional charges to your AWS account for Amazon EC2.

  8. For Platform, choose the type of Amazon EC2 instance that you want: Amazon Linux 2023, Amazon Linux 2 or Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. AWS Cloud9 creates the instance and then connects the environment to it.

    Important

    We recommend that you choose the Amazon Linux 2023 option for your EC2 environment. In addition to providing a secure, stable, and high-performance runtime environment, Amazon Linux 2023 AMI includes long-term support through 2024.

    For more information, see the AL2023 page.

  9. Choose a time period for Timeout. This option determines how long AWS Cloud9 is inactive before auto-hibernating. When all web browser instances that are connected to the IDE for the environment are closed, AWS Cloud9 waits the amount of time specified and then shuts down the Amazon EC2 instance for the environment.

    Warning

    Choosing a longer time period might result in more charges to your AWS account.

  10. On the Network settings panel, choose how your environment is accessed from the two following options:

    • AWS System Manager (SSM) – This method accesses the environment using SSM without opening inbound ports.

    • Secure Shell (SSH) – This method accesses the environment using SSH and requires open inbound ports.

  11. Choose VPC Settings to display the Amazon Virtual Private Cloud and Subnet for your environment. AWS Cloud9 uses Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC) to communicate with the newly created Amazon EC2 instance. For this tutorial, we recommend that you don't change the preselected default settings. With the default settings, AWS Cloud9 attempts to automatically use the default VPC with its single subnet in the same AWS account and Region as the new environment.

    You can find more information about Amazon VPC choices in Create an EC2 Environment with the Console, and in VPC settings for AWS Cloud9 Development Environments.

  12. Add up to 50 tags by supplying a Key and Value for each tag. Do so by selecting Add new tag. The tags are attached to the AWS Cloud9 environment as resource tags, and are propagated to the following underlying resources: the AWS CloudFormation stack, the Amazon EC2 instance, and Amazon EC2 security groups. To learn more about tags, see Control Access Using AWS Resource Tags in the IAM User Guide and advanced information in this guide.

    Warning

    If you update these tags after you create them, the changes aren't propagated to the underlying resources. For more information, see Propagating tag updates to underlying resources in the advanced information about tags.

  13. Choose Create to create your environment, and then you're redirected to the home page. If the account is successfully created, a green flash bar appears at the top of the AWS Cloud9 console. You can select the new environment and choose Open in Cloud9 to launch the IDE.

    AWS Cloud9 IDE selector in the AWS Cloud9 console

    If the account fails to create, a red flash bar appears at the top of the AWS Cloud9 console. Your account might fail to create because of a problem with your web browser, your AWS access permissions, the instance, or the associated network. You can find information about possible fixes in the AWS Cloud9 Troubleshooting section.

    Note

    AWS Cloud9 supports both IMDSv1 and IMDSv2. We recommend adopting IMDSv2 as it provides an enhanced level of security compared to IMDSv1. For more information on the benefits of IMDSv2, see AWS Security Blog. For information on how to transition to IMDSv2 from IMDSv1, see Transition to using Instance Metadata Service Version 2 in the Amazon EC2 User Guide for Linux Instances.

    Note

    If your environment is using a proxy to access the internet, you must provide proxy details to AWS Cloud9 so it can install dependencies. For more information, see Failed to install dependencies.

Create an EC2 environment with the AWS CLI

  1. Install and configure the AWS CLI, if you have not done so already. To do this, see the following in the AWS Command Line Interface User Guide:

    You can configure the AWS CLI using credentials for one of the following:

    • The IAM user you created in Setting up Team for AWS Cloud9.

    • An IAM administrator in your AWS account, if you will be working regularly with AWS Cloud9 resources for multiple users across the account. If you cannot configure the AWS CLI as an IAM administrator, check with your AWS account administrator. For more information, see Creating your first IAM admin user and group in the IAM User Guide.

    • An AWS account root user, but only if you will always be the only one using your own AWS account, and you don't need to share your environments with anyone else. We don't recommend this option as it isn't an AWS security best practice. For more information, see Creating, Disabling, and Deleting Access Keys for Your AWS Account in the Amazon Web Services General Reference.

    • For other options, see your AWS account administrator or classroom instructor.

  2. In the following AWS Cloud9 command, provide a value for --region and --subnet-id. Then run the command and make a note of the "environmentId" value for later cleanup.

    aws cloud9 create-environment-ec2 --name my-demo-environment --description "This environment is for the AWS Cloud9 tutorial." --instance-type t2.micro --image-id resolve:ssm:/aws/service/cloud9/amis/amazonlinux-2-x86_64 --region MY-REGION --connection-type CONNECT_SSM --subnet-id subnet-12a3456b

    In the preceding command:

    • --name represents the name of the environment. In this tutorial, we use the name my-demo-environment.

    • --description represents an optional description for the environment.

    • --instance-type represents the type of Amazon EC2 instance AWS Cloud9 will launch and connect to the new environment. This example specifies t2.micro, which has relatively low RAM and vCPUs and is sufficient for this tutorial. Specifying instance types with more RAM and vCPUs might result in additional charges to your AWS account for Amazon EC2. For a list of available instance types, see the create environment wizard in the AWS Cloud9 console.

    • --image-id specifies the identifier for the Amazon Machine Image (AMI) that's used to create the EC2 instance. To choose an AMI for the instance, you must specify a valid AMI alias or a valid AWS Systems Manager (SSM) path. In the example above, an SSM path for an Amazon Linux 2 AMI is specified.

      For more information, see create-environment-ec2 in the AWS CLI Command Reference.

    • --region represents the ID of the AWS Region for AWS Cloud9 to create the environment in. For a list of available AWS Regions, see AWS Cloud9 in the Amazon Web Services General Reference.

    • --connection-type CONNECT_SSM specifies that AWS Cloud9 connects to its Amazon EC2 instance through Systems Manager. This option ensures no inbound traffic to the instance is allowed. For more information, see Accessing no-ingress EC2 instances with AWS Systems Manager.

      Note

      When using this option, you need to create the AWSCloud9SSMAccessRole service role and AWSCloud9SSMInstanceProfile if they aren't already created. For more information, see Managing instance profiles for Systems Manager with the AWS CLI.

    • --subnet-id represents the subnet you want AWS Cloud9 to use. Replace subnet-12a3456b with the ID of the subnet of an Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), which must be compatible with AWS Cloud9. For more information, see Create a VPC plus other VPC resources in VPC settings for AWS Cloud9 Development Environments.

    • AWS Cloud9 shuts down the Amazon EC2 instance for the environment after all web browser instances that are connected to the IDE for the environment have been closed. To configure this time period, add --automatic-stop-time-minutes and the number of minutes. A shorter time period might result in fewer charges to your AWS account. Likewise, a longer time might result in more charges.

    • By default, the entity that calls this command owns the environment. To change this, add --owner-id and the Amazon Resource Name (ARN) of the owning entity.

  3. After you successfully run this command, open the AWS Cloud9 IDE for the newly created environment. To do this, see Opening an environment in AWS Cloud9. Then return to this topic and continue with Step 2: Basic tour of the IDE to learn how to use the AWS Cloud9 IDE to work with your new environment.

    If you try to open the environment, but AWS Cloud9 doesn't display the IDE after at least five minutes, there might be a problem with your web browser, your AWS access permissions, the instance, or the associated VPC. For possible fixes, see Can't open an environment.

Step 2: Basic tour of the IDE

This part of the tutorial introduces some of the ways that you can use the AWS Cloud9 IDE to create and test applications.

  • You can use an editor window to create and edit code.

  • You can use a terminal window or a Run Configuration window to run your code without debugging it.

  • You can use the Debugger window to debug your code.

Perform these three tasks using JavaScript and the Node.js engine. For instructions on using other programming languages, see Tutorials for AWS Cloud9.

Get your environment ready

Most of the tools that you need to run and debug JavaScript code are already installed for you. However, you need one additional Node.js package for this tutorial. Install it as follows.

  1. On the menu bar at the top of the AWS Cloud9 IDE, choose Window, New Terminal or use an existing terminal window.

  2. In the terminal window, which is one of the tabs in the bottom portion of the IDE, enter the following.

    npm install readline-sync

    Verify that the result is similar to the following. If npm WARN messages are also displayed, you can ignore them.

    + readline-sync@1.4.10
added 1 package from 1 contributor and audited 5 packages in 0.565s
found 0 vulnerabilities

Write code

Begin by writing some code.

  1. On the menu bar, choose File, New File.

  2. Add the following JavaScript to the new file.

    var readline = require('readline-sync');
var i = 10;
var input;

console.log("Hello Cloud9!");
console.log("i is " + i);

do {
    input = readline.question("Enter a number (or 'q' to quit): ");
    if (input === 'q') {
        console.log('OK, exiting.')
    }
    else{
        i += Number(input);
        console.log("i is now " + i);
    }
} while (input != 'q');

console.log("Goodbye!");

  3. Choose File, Save, and then save the file as hello-cloud9.js.

Run your code

Next, you can run your code.

Depending on the programming language that you're using, there might be multiple ways that you can run code. This tutorial uses JavaScript, which you can run using a terminal window or a Run Configuration window.

To run the code using a Run Configuration window

  1. On the menu bar, choose Run, Run Configurations, New Run Configuration.

  2. In the new Run Configuration window (one of the tabs in the bottom portion of the IDE), enter hello-cloud9.js in the Command field, and then choose Run.

  3. Make sure that the Run Configuration prompt is active, and then interact with the application by entering a number at the prompt.

  4. View the output from your code in the Run Configuration window. It is similar to the following.

Run code in a Run Configuration.
To run the code using a terminal window

  1. Go to the terminal window that you used earlier (or open a new one).

  2. In the terminal window, enter ls at the terminal prompt, and verify that your code file is in the list of files.

  3. Enter node hello-cloud9.js at the prompt to start the application.

  4. Interact with the application by entering a number at the prompt.

  5. View the output from your code in the terminal window. It is similar to the following.

Run code in a Run Configuration.

Debug your code

Finally, you can debug your code by using the Debugger window.

  1. Add a breakpoint to your code at line 10 (if (input === 'q')) by choosing the margin next to line 10. A red circle is displayed next to that line number, as follows.

    Adding a breakpoint to the code.

  2. Open the Debugger window by choosing the Debugger button on the right side of the IDE. Alternatively, choose Window, Debugger on the menu bar.

    Then, put a watch on the input variable by choosing Type an expression here in the Watch Expressions section of the Debugger window.

    Debugger window, set watch

  3. Go to the Run Configuration window that you used earlier to run the code. Choose Run.

    Alternately, you can open a new Run Configuration window and start running the code. Do so by choosing Run, Run With, Node.js from the menu bar.

  4. Enter a number at the Run Configuration prompt and see that the code pauses at line 10. The Debugger window shows the value that you entered in Watch Expressions.

    Program stops at breakpoint

  5. In the Debugger window, choose Resume. This is the blue arrow icon that's highlighted in the previous screenshot.

  6. Select Stop in the Run Configuration window to stop the debugger.

    Deleting an environment in the environment details page

Step 3: Clean up

To prevent ongoing charges to your AWS account that are related to this tutorial, delete the environment.

Warning

You cannot restore your environment after you delete it.

Delete the Environment by using the AWS Cloud9 console

  1. To open the dashboard, on the menu bar in the IDE, choose AWS Cloud9, Go To Your Dashboard.

  2. Do one of the following:

    • Choose the title inside of the my-demo-environment card, and then choose Delete.

      Deleting an environment in the environment details page

    • Select the my-demo-environment card, and then choose Delete.

      Deleting an environment in the environments list

  3. In the Delete dialog box, enter Delete, and then choose Delete. The delete operation takes a few minutes.

Note

If you followed this tutorial exactly, then the environment was an EC2 environment and AWS Cloud9 also terminates the Amazon EC2 instance that was connected to that environment.

However, if you used an SSH environment instead of following the tutorial, and that environment was connected to an Amazon EC2 instance, AWS Cloud9 doesn't terminate that instance. If you don't terminate that instance later, your AWS account might continue to have ongoing charges for Amazon EC2 that are related to that instance.

Delete the Environment with the AWS CLI

  1. Run the AWS Cloud9 delete-environment command, specifying the ID of the environment to delete.

    aws cloud9 delete-environment --region MY-REGION --environment-id 12a34567b8cd9012345ef67abcd890e1

    In the preceding command, replace MY-REGION with the AWS Region in which the environment was created and 12a34567b8cd9012345ef67abcd890e1 with the ID of the environment to delete.

    If you didn't save the ID when you created the environment, the ID can be found by using the AWS Cloud9 console. Select the name of the environment in the console, then find the last part of the Environment ARN.

  2. If you created an Amazon VPC for this tutorial and you no longer need it, delete the VPC using the Amazon VPC console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/vpc.

Related information

The following is additional information for Getting started with AWS Cloud9 Console.

  • When you create an EC2 environment, the environment doesn't contain any sample code by default. To create an environment with sample code, see the following topic:

  • While the AWS Cloud9 development environment is being created, you're directed AWS Cloud9 to create an Amazon EC2 instance. AWS Cloud9 created the instance and then connected the environment to it. You can alternatively use an existing cloud compute instance or your own server, which is called an SSH environment. For more information, see Creating an environment in AWS Cloud9.

Optional next steps

Explore any or all of the following topics to continue getting familiar with AWS Cloud9.

Task See this topic

Learn more about what you can do with an environment.

Working with environments in AWS Cloud9

Try other computer languages.

Tutorials for AWS Cloud9

Learn more about the AWS Cloud9 IDE.

Tour of the AWS Cloud9 IDE in Working with the IDE

Invite others to use your new environment in real time and with text chat support.

Working with shared environment in AWS Cloud9

Create SSH environments. These are environments that use cloud compute instances or servers that you create, instead of an Amazon EC2 instance that AWS Cloud9 creates for you.

Creating an environment in AWS Cloud9 and SSH environment host requirements

Create, run, and debug code in AWS Lambda functions and serverless applications using the AWS Toolkit.

Working with AWS Lambda functions using the AWS Toolkit

Use AWS Cloud9 with Amazon Lightsail.

Working with Amazon Lightsail instances in the AWS Cloud9 IDE

Use AWS Cloud9 with AWS CodePipeline.

Working with AWS CodePipeline in the AWS Cloud9 IDE

Use AWS Cloud9 with the AWS CLI, the AWS CloudShell, AWS CodeCommit, the AWS Cloud Development Kit (AWS CDK), GitHub, or Amazon DynamoDB, and Node.js, Python, or other programming languages.

Tutorials for AWS Cloud9

Work with code for intelligent robotics applications in AWS RoboMaker.

Developing with AWS Cloud9 in the AWS RoboMaker Developer Guide

To get help with AWS Cloud9 from the community, see the AWS Cloud9 Discussion Forum. (When you enter this forum, AWS might require you to sign in.)

To get help with AWS Cloud9 directly from AWS, see the support options on the AWS Support page.