console

bmc console opens the AWS Management Console in your browser for the current or selected AWS profile.

Usage #

bmc console              # Open console for current profile (AWS_PROFILE)
bmc console -p myprofile # Open console for a specific profile
bmc console -p           # Force interactive profile selection
bmc console -s ec2       # Open console at a specific service page
bmc console -s systems-manager/parameters  # Deep link to a sub-page

Service shortcuts #

Use -s to open a specific AWS service or console page directly. The value is a console path — use a slash to deep link to a sub-page:

bmc console -s rds                          # RDS dashboard
bmc console -s ec2                          # EC2 dashboard
bmc console -s systems-manager/parameters   # Parameter Store
bmc console -s iam/roles                    # IAM Roles

The region from your selected AWS profile is used automatically.

Session lifetime #

A console session lasts exactly as long as the temporary credentials it was created from, so the AssumeRole duration BMC requests is what determines when you get logged out. The default is one hour, which every IAM role supports.

To request longer sessions, set session_duration_seconds in ~/.config/bmc/config.json:

{
  "console": {
    "session_duration_seconds": 14400
  }
}

Accepted values range from 900 (15 minutes) to 43200 (12 hours). A role only grants up to its own MaxSessionDuration — when the configured value exceeds it, BMC falls back to one hour rather than failing. Roles reached by role chaining are always capped at one hour by AWS.

On open, bmc console prints when the session expires. Use bmc console --watch to have the watcher daemon refresh it in the background shortly before it lapses.

Browser options #

Firefox containers with Granted (recommended) #

The Granted Firefox extension enables container tabs — each AWS profile opens in its own isolated container with separate cookies and sessions.

Setup:

1. Install Firefox
2. Install the Granted extension from the Firefox Add-ons store
3. Enable in ~/.config/bmc/config.json:

{
  "console": {
    "firefox_containers": true
  }
}

How it works:

When firefox_containers = true, BMC passes the AWS console URL to the Granted extension via a special URL scheme (granted-containers://). Granted opens it in a Firefox container tab named after the AWS profile. Each profile gets its own isolated session — you can be logged in to multiple AWS accounts simultaneously in separate tabs without any cross-contamination.

If Firefox is not your default browser, Granted still works as long as Firefox is installed.

Chrome profile isolation #

Opens the console in a dedicated Chrome profile per AWS account. See Chrome Profiles for setup details.

{
  "console": {
    "chrome_profiles": true,
    "chrome_binary": "google-chrome"
  }
}

Default browser #

Without either option, BMC opens the AWS console URL in your system default browser.

MFA #

If MFA is enabled and the session has expired, bmc console automatically refreshes it before opening the browser. See MFA setup.