diff --git a/docs/src/getting-started.rst b/docs/src/getting-started.rst
index bc5f8fb955539..759a883861346 100644
--- a/docs/src/getting-started.rst
+++ b/docs/src/getting-started.rst
@@ -26,7 +26,9 @@ Prerequisites
 command-line toolkit and language bindings.
 
 `AWS CLI <https://aws.amazon.com/cli>`_ - recommended in general, and can be
-used to setup the :ref:`credentials <credentials>` for your AWS account.
+used to setup the credentials and region for your AWS account,
+which must be specified to use the toolkit.
+See :ref:`credentials <credentials>` for information on using the AWS CLI to set your credentials.
 
 Install the command-line toolkit
 --------------------------------