How to Use Git Checkout with AWS CLI for Branch Deployments

I typed the command and nothing happened. That’s when I realized the checkout never happened at all. The AWS CLI was in my terminal. Git was on my machine. But they weren’t playing together.

If you’ve ever needed to pull a branch from a Git repository directly into an AWS environment, the first step is to untangle the roles: AWS CLI manages your AWS services; Git manages your code. To run git checkout against a branch stored remotely, you still need the Git repo cloned in the right place—whether that’s on your local machine or inside an EC2 instance, Lambda container image, or Cloud9 environment.

The most common use case is deploying code from a specific branch into an AWS service. That starts with authentication. Use aws configure to set your credentials and region. Make sure your IAM permissions allow access to CodeCommit if that’s your repo host. If your repository lives in CodeCommit, the remote URL will use the AWS CLI credential helper automatically. For HTTPS connections:

git config --global credential.helper '!aws codecommit credential-helper $@'
git config --global credential.UseHttpPath true

Once that’s set, clone your repository:

git clone codecommit::us-east-1://my-repo-name
cd my-repo-name

From there, run git fetch to ensure you have the latest branches, then:

git checkout feature/new-api

At this point you’re working with your chosen branch. For automation, integrate this process inside AWS CodeBuild or a CI/CD pipeline. In CodeBuild, include a git checkout step in your buildspec after pulling the repo. In EC2 or ECS workflows, you can run these commands as part of your deployment scripts.

This combination—AWS CLI for access and Git checkout for branch control—lets you sync code directly into your AWS workflow without manual transfers. The key is keeping the authentication clean and automating the pull and checkout where possible.

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