View EC2 Instances from your terminal
orbit lists EC2 Instances as a dense, sortable table: 49 columns including Name, Instance Id and State, fetched with EC2:DescribeInstances.
Read-only is the default, so browsing is safe against a production account. Start orbit with --write and the mutating actions become reachable: Connect (SSM), Start, Stop, Reboot and more, each behind its own confirmation dialog.
brew install doughlass/homebrew-tap/orbit
What the EC2 Instances table shows
| Column | Source field |
|---|---|
| Name | Tags.Name |
| Instance Id | InstanceId |
| State | State |
| Type | InstanceType |
| Az | AvailabilityZone |
| Public Ip | PublicIpAddress |
| Private Ip | PrivateIpAddress |
| Public Dns | PublicDnsName |
| Private Dns | PrivateDnsName |
| Elastic Ip | ElasticIp |
| Ipv6 Ip | Ipv6Address |
| Monitoring | Monitoring |
| Sec Groups | SecurityGroupNames |
| Sec Group Ids | SecurityGroupIds |
| Key Name | KeyName |
| Launch Time | LaunchTime |
| Platform | Platform |
| Platform Details | PlatformDetails |
| Vpc Id | VpcId |
| Subnet Id | SubnetId |
| Image Id | ImageId |
| Architecture | Architecture |
| Virt Type | VirtualizationType |
| Root Device Name | RootDeviceName |
| Root Device Type | RootDeviceType |
| Ebs Optimized | EbsOptimized |
| Volume Id | VolumeId |
| Kernel Id | KernelId |
| Ramdisk Id | RamdiskId |
| Ami Launch Index | AmiLaunchIndex |
| Instance Lifecycle | InstanceLifecycle |
| Iam Profile Arn | IamInstanceProfileArn |
| Tenancy | Tenancy |
| Affinity | Affinity |
| Host Id | HostId |
| Placement Group | PlacementGroup |
| Partition Number | PartitionNumber |
| Capacity Reservation Id | CapacityReservationId |
| State Transition Code | StateTransitionCode |
| State Transition Msg | StateTransitionMessage |
| Hibernation | Hibernation |
| Outpost Arn | OutpostArn |
| Product Codes | ProductCodes |
| Imdsv2 | Imdsv2 |
| Usage Operation | UsageOperation |
| Hypervisor | Hypervisor |
| Ena Support | EnaSupport |
| Spot Request Id | SpotInstanceRequestId |
| Operator | Operator |
Columns with an opt-in flag are hidden by default; press v for the column visibility picker.
Actions on EC2 Instances
| Key | Action | AWS API | Posture |
|---|---|---|---|
c | Connect (SSM) | EC2:ssm_connect | needs --write |
s | Start | EC2:StartInstances | needs --write |
S | Stop | EC2:StopInstances | needs --write |
r | Reboot | EC2:RebootInstances | needs --write |
ctrl+d | Terminate | EC2:TerminateInstances | needs --write |
See how orbit keeps writes behind --write.
IAM permissions for this view
Read-only browsing needs EC2:DescribeInstances
plus the standard EC2 List and Describe permissions for the surrounding views. Write actions map to EC2:StartInstances, EC2:StopInstances and are reachable only under --write.
Questions about EC2 Instances in orbit
What IAM permissions do I need to view EC2 Instances in orbit?
orbit lists EC2 Instances with EC2:DescribeInstances, so a policy granting EC2:DescribeInstances is enough for read-only browsing of this view. The mutating actions (EC2:StartInstances, EC2:StopInstances) additionally require --write at startup, and their IAM actions.
Is browsing EC2 Instances safe against a production account?
Read-only is the default. Listing and describing EC2 Instances performs no mutations. The write actions on this view (Connect (SSM), Start, Stop, Reboot) are reachable only when orbit is started with --write, each behind its own confirmation.
Related views
EBS Volumes
View in the terminal
EBS Snapshots
View in the terminal
AMIs
View in the terminal
VPCs
View in the terminal
Load Balancers
View in the terminal
orbit is not affiliated with or endorsed by Amazon Web Services, Inc. AWS is a trademark of Amazon.com, Inc. orbit is MIT licensed.