https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/userguide/cli-usage-output.html
instance id and instance name ( Tags ) aws ec2 describe-instances --query 'Reservations[].Instances[].[InstanceId, Tags[?Key==`Name`].Value[] | [0]]' --output text --no-verify i-0947d5f8513cff6ed ixVPC-vSRX1 i-0ae9837801fcda4ce ixVPC-Ubuntu1-instance Only InstanceId ---------------- aws ec2 describe-instances --query 'Reservations[].Instances[].[InstanceId]' --output text --no-verify i-0947d5f8513cff6ed i-0ae9837801fcda4ce Only Tags ---------- aws ec2 describe-instances --query 'Reservations[].Instances[].[Tags[?Key==`Name`].Value[] | [0]]' --output text --no-verify ixVPC-vSRX1 ixVPC-Ubuntu1-instance no output: --output text -------------------------- aws ec2 describe-instances --query 'Reservations[].Instances[].[Tags[?Key==`Name`].Value[] | [0]]' --no-verify ---------------------------- | DescribeInstances | +--------------------------+ | ixVPC-vSRX1 | | ixVPC-Ubuntu1-instance | +--------------------------+ | |
query +with column names ( any names ) | with column name aws ec2 describe-instances --query 'Reservations[].Instances[].{InstanceId:InstanceId,InstanceType:InstanceType}' --no-verify
-----------------------------------------
| DescribeInstances |
+----------------------+----------------+
| InstanceId | InstanceType |
+----------------------+----------------+
| i-0947d5f8513cff6ed | c3.xlarge |
| i-0ae9837801fcda4ce | t2.nano |
+----------------------+----------------+
InstanceId:InstanceId <name of the column>:<name of the row>
InstanceType:InstanceType <name of the column>:<name of the row>
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| DescribeInstances |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|| Reservations ||
|+---------------------------------+----------------------------------------------+|
|| OwnerId | 296119820525 ||
|| ReservationId | r-0fe954f096ff2ba8e ||
|+---------------------------------+----------------------------------------------+|
||| Instances |||
||+------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------+||
||| AmiLaunchIndex | 0 |||
||| Architecture | x86_64 |||
||| ClientToken | |||
||| EbsOptimized | False |||
||| EnaSupport | True |||
||| Hypervisor | xen |||
||| ImageId | ami-005bdb005fb00e791 |||
||| InstanceId | i-0ae9837801fcda4ce ||| <<<<<<<<<< InstanceId row
||| InstanceType | t2.nano ||| <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< InstanceType row
||| KeyName | terraformkeypairuswest2 |||
||| LaunchTime | 2019-03-25T13:41:36.000Z |||
|
| show instance name, id and type | name , type and id aws ec2 describe-instances --query 'Reservations[].Instances[].{Name:Tags[?Key==`Name`].Value[] | [0],InstanceId:InstanceId,Inst
anceType:InstanceType}' --filter "Name=instance-state-name,Values=running" --no-verify
-------------------------------------------------------------------
| DescribeInstances |
+----------------------+---------------+--------------------------+
| InstanceId | InstanceType | Name |
+----------------------+---------------+--------------------------+
| i-051cfe892501c68e5 | t2.nano | ixVPC-Ubuntu1-instance |
| i-089af23ab4698867b | c3.xlarge | ixVPC-vSRX1 |
+----------------------+---------------+--------------------------+
Without the : " | [0]"
------------------------
aws ec2 describe-instances --query 'Reservations[].Instances[].{Name:Tags[?Key==`Name`].Value[],InstanceId:InstanceId,InstanceTy
pe:InstanceType}' --filter "Name=instance-state-name,Values=running" --no-verify
-----------------------------------------
| DescribeInstances |
+----------------------+----------------+
| InstanceId | InstanceType |
+----------------------+----------------+
| i-051cfe892501c68e5 | t2.nano |
+----------------------+----------------+
|| Name ||
|+-------------------------------------+|
|| ixVPC-Ubuntu1-instance ||
|+-------------------------------------+|
| DescribeInstances |
+----------------------+----------------+
| InstanceId | InstanceType |
+----------------------+----------------+
| i-089af23ab4698867b | c3.xlarge |
+----------------------+----------------+
|| Name ||
|+-------------------------------------+|
|| ixVPC-vSRX1 ||
|+-------------------------------------+|
|