Serverless CLI Reference for AWS

Welcome to the Serverless Framework CLI Reference for AWS. Please select a section on the left to get started.

Non-interactive use: CI and AI agents

The CLI adapts when no one is at a terminal: in CI (the CI environment variable is set, with any value), when standard input or standard output is not a terminal (piped or redirected), and when an AI coding agent runs it.

• No animated spinner; progress messages are shown as plain lines with --verbose.
• Sign-in prompts are skipped. A command that needs a sign-in fails with a message that names the keys to set instead. serverless login prints the sign-in URL for you to open, except in CI, where it fails and names the keys to set; see Login. serverless login aws and serverless login aws sso fail in these environments.

AI coding agents (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI and others) are detected from the environment variables they set; any other tool can identify itself by setting AI_AGENT. They get this behavior even when they run commands in a terminal, and color codes are turned off. Set FORCE_COLOR=1 to keep colors.

serverless dev prints a first line for AI agents that points to serverless dev --detach; see Using Dev Mode from an AI agent.

Set SLS_INTERACTIVE_SETUP_ENABLE to any non-empty value when you are at a terminal and the CLI treats the run as non-interactive, for example because it takes you for an AI agent. Every command then runs as it does for a person: prompts come back, the spinner animates when standard error is a terminal, a run taken for an AI agent keeps its colors and no longer gets the AI agent line of serverless dev, and the Dev Mode keys work wherever standard input is a terminal. It takes precedence over AI agent detection, over CI, and over standard input or output that is not a terminal. A terminal that reports a width of zero columns, as some CI systems and agent harnesses create, still counts as non-interactive. NO_COLOR and FORCE_COLOR still decide colors (see Colors).

Colors

The CLI colors its output when the terminal supports it. Set NO_COLOR to any non-empty value to turn color codes off, in a terminal too. FORCE_COLOR takes precedence over NO_COLOR and over AI agent detection: when it is set, its value decides. FORCE_COLOR=0 or FORCE_COLOR=false turns color codes off; FORCE_COLOR=1, or an empty value, turns them on.

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