Autotype request

[Mughal1]

I've recently begun experimenting with using the AWS CLI in a backup role for our company's primary AWS engineer. My company has a bunch of AWS accounts (about 25+) for a variety of workloads, all managed through the AWS Org feature + using SSO.

I've been able to streamline the access process a bit with SSO profiles and the use of environment variables, all within Visual Studio Code + the built-in integration with an inline Windows Terminal prompt.

I'm trying to figure out a way to shortcut an "auto-type" function so that I can quickly trigger a shift between AWS accounts through the re-definition/switch of an AWS related environment variable (tied to my various AWS account sso profiles) in my VSC/Terminal window. I've rigged this through Keepass at the current time, where I can trigger a < ctrl >+< alt >+ a key-combo to bring up a keepass dialog box with a list of aws sso profile options. I scroll through the options till I find the right one, select it and that particular profile selection variable re-definition is auto-typed into my Windows Terminal window.

I wanted to see if Windows Terminal could be configured to perform a similar function, without having to rely or make use of Keepass?

I think I found a base option through the use of Windows Terminal actions via sendInput, but I haven't been able to overcome some challenges yet:

-) The action / sendInput function seems to only allow unique key-combo's per individual instance. It would mean having to configure and memorize 25+ separate unique key-combinations, one per profile. That's a tall ask and doesn't scale too well. I was hoping for a single keyboard shortcut with a trigger for a menu of selectable auto-type entries

-) If I try to define multiple sendInput functions, all tied to the "same" key-combo, the system only seems to honor the "last" entry in the settings file.

I know this is a weird/tall ask, but I'm hoping someone has some suggestions as to how I can accomplish this using native Windows Terminal if possible.

Thanks,

[zadjii-msft]

You might be interested in the "Suggestions UI"¹

It can't do exactly what you're describing quite yet. But, I think if you had a fragment with the command to enable each of the AWS sso profiles, all nested under one header, then you could get pretty close.

Make a file² that looks like this, and drop it into %localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows Terminal\Fragments\aws-profiles\actions.json

{
    "actions": [
        {
            "name": "AWS Profiles...",
            "commands": [
                {
                    "command": {
                        "input": "doTheThing --enable profile1 -i --clearlyKnowAws",
                        "action": "sendInput"
                    },
                    "name": "Profile 1",
                    "description": "Enable AWS SSO profile 1"
                },
                {
                    "command": {
                        "input": "doTheThing --enable profile2 -i --clearlyKnowAws",
                        "action": "sendInput"
                    },
                    "name": "Profile 2",
                    "description": "Enable AWS SSO profile 2"
                },
                // etc...

Then bind

        {
            "command": 
            {
                "action": "showSuggestions",
                "source": "all",
                "useCommandline": true // optional
            },
        } 

In your main settings.json file. That'll let you open a dedicated UI element for all the sendInput actions. You could then filter that list to find aws., hit enter, then find the profile you're looking for.

It's not a single key chord per-profile, but it might scale out better than that. You think that would work for you?

Footnotes

1. The suggestions UI first showed up in Terminal Preview 1.21 IIRC, and is much more stable in 1.22 ↩

2. changes to this file won't hot reload on a save of this file. You'll have to save the main terminal settings.json to get the terminal to reload the settings ↩