Connecting to DynamoDB

DynamoOps opens on a full-screen login card. Nothing else in the app is available until a connection succeeds. The card has four tabs, one per connection method.

Two footer buttons are shared by most tabs: Test Connection validates without leaving the login screen, and the main button connects. Its label changes per tab: Connect to DynamoDB, Assume Role & Connect or Sign in with AWS in browser.

Quick Connect uses a local AWS CLI profile (or the SDK default chain) to reach DynamoDB in a region, optionally against a custom endpoint.

AWS Regionselectrequired

One of seven regions: us-east-1 (N. Virginia), us-east-2 (Ohio), us-west-1 (N. California), us-west-2 (Oregon), eu-west-1 (Ireland), eu-central-1 (Frankfurt) and sa-east-1 (São Paulo). Defaults to us-east-1.

AWS Profiletext

The name of a profile in ~/.aws/credentials or ~/.aws/config. Leave default or empty to use the SDK default credential chain, exactly like running the AWS CLI without --profile. If a named profile cannot be loaded, DynamoOps falls back to the default chain.

Custom Endpoint (Optional)url

Point the connection at DynamoDB Local, LocalStack or any DynamoDB-compatible endpoint, for example http://localhost:8000. See DynamoDB Local and LocalStack.

Environmenttoggle

None, Dev, QA, Staging, Prod or Local. A visual tag shown in the header after connecting. See below.

Save this connectioncheckbox

Reveals a Profile Name field. The connection is saved locally under that name and listed in Saved Profiles.

1. Fill in the region and profile

   Pick the region your tables live in and type the profile name.

2. Click Connect to DynamoDB

   DynamoOps resets any previous session, builds the AWS clients and validates them with a ListTables call limited to one result.

3. Start working

   On success you see the toast “Connected to <region>”, the login card fades out and the sidebar lists your tables. The connection is also recorded under Recent Connections.

If the connection fails, the error from AWS is shown inline under the form, for example “Connection failed: The security token included in the request is invalid”.

Every connection can carry an environment tag. After connecting, the tag appears as a coloured badge in the header (DEV, QA, STAGING, PROD or LOCAL) so you always know which account a tab belongs to. The tag is purely visual: it does not add confirmation prompts or write protection. It is saved together with saved profiles, recent connections and the Assume Role history, and restored when you reuse them.

Test Connection performs the same validation as connecting: it builds the clients and calls ListTables. You see “Connection test successful!” or “Test failed: <message>” without leaving the login screen.

Once connected, the header shows the state of the session at a glance.

• Provider badge — ☁ AWS <region> for real AWS endpoints, or ⚡ LocalStack <region> when the custom endpoint contains localhost, 127.0.0.1 or localstack.
• Role badge — 🛡️ <RoleName> when an Assume Role or SSO session is active. For Assume Role it includes a live countdown to expiry.
• Environment badge — the tag you chose at connect time.
• Status pill — Connected, Connecting…, Assuming role…, Failed or Disconnected.

Use the 🔄 button (Switch AWS Connection) in the header to bring the login screen back while the current session stays active. The moment you connect to something else, DynamoOps resets the previous session: it discards temporary credentials, closes every tab and clears the table list. Tabs from two different connections never coexist.

The logout button ends the session immediately: temporary credentials are dropped, all tabs close, badges are cleared and the status reads Disconnected. SSO tokens cached on disk are not removed by logout; use Forget this SSO session on the AWS SSO tab for that.