aws hero

the problem

The AWS console is vast. Finding the right service, switching regions, hunting for that one IAM role - it adds up. I built AWS Hero out of pure frustration.

what it does

• quick navigation - keyboard shortcuts to jump between services
• region switcher - switch regions without hunting through dropdowns
• resource search - find resources across services faster
• console cleanup - hide the noise, surface what matters

under the hood

Built with vanilla JavaScript and the Chrome Extensions API (Manifest V3). No build step, no framework overhead - just fast.

chrome.commands.onCommand.addListener((command) => {
  if (command === "open-search") {
    chrome.tabs.query({ active: true, currentWindow: true }, (tabs) => {
      chrome.tabs.sendMessage(tabs[0].id, { action: "openSearch" });
    });
  }
});

install

Available on the Chrome Web Store, or clone and load unpacked from the repo.

why i built it

11+ years of AWS work means a lot of console time. Small friction adds up. A 2-second shortcut, repeated 50 times a day, saves 100 seconds. Over a year, that's hours.

The best tools are the ones you forget you're using.

---

update — april 2026

AWS quietly did something they rarely do: they actually fixed the console.

With the latest updates to the AWS Organizations admin panel, they shipped three things that covered the core reasons I built this extension:

• multi-session support — you can now run multiple AWS Organization accounts simultaneously in the same browser without juggling profiles or incognito windows
• account renaming — accounts can finally be renamed directly from the console, no more decoding 123456789012 to figure out which environment you're in
• account colours — visual colour-coding per account, so it's immediately obvious when you're in prod vs dev

These were exactly the pain points AWS Hero was solving. The extension did its job, and now AWS has done theirs.

It's been killed off, but it was a fun thing to build — and apparently a few people at AWS were watching the same problems.