Aws Sdk Js V3 Usage

This one's for anyone writing Node.js or TypeScript code that talks to AWS services using the v3 SDK. It covers the modular client pattern (the `@aws-sdk/client-*` packages), credential providers, streaming response handling (critical because unread streams leak sockets), DynamoDB DocumentClient, S3 presigned URLs and multipart uploads, paginators, and middleware. The guidance is opinionated in the right ways: prefer the bare-bones client style for smaller bundles, never mutate client config after instantiation, always consume or destroy streams. If you're moving from v2 or just need to stop Googling basic patterns like credential chains and error handling, this saves a lot of time.

skills.sh installs: 8.5K
GitHub stars: 3.4K
last updated: Aug 21, 2026

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Install

$ npx -y skills add aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws --skill aws-sdk-js-v3-usage --agent claude-code

Installs into .claude/skills of the current project.

Files

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AWS SDK for JavaScript v3

Package Structure

@aws-sdk/client-* — one per service, generated by smithy-typescript; one-to-one with AWS services and operations
@aws-sdk/lib-* — higher-level helpers (e.g. lib-dynamodb, lib-storage)
@aws-sdk/* (no prefix) — utility packages (mostly internal; don't import deep paths)

Always import from the package root:

import { S3Client } from "@aws-sdk/client-s3"; // correct
// NOT: import { S3Client } from "@aws-sdk/client-s3/dist-cjs/S3Client"

Two Client Styles

Bare-bones (preferred — smaller bundle):

import { S3Client, GetObjectCommand } from "@aws-sdk/client-s3";
const client = new S3Client({ region: "us-east-1" });
const output = await client.send(new GetObjectCommand({ Bucket: "b", Key: "k" }));

Aggregated (v2-style but NOT v2, larger bundle):

import { S3 } from "@aws-sdk/client-s3";
const client = new S3({ region: "us-east-1" });
const output = await client.getObject({ Bucket: "b", Key: "k" });