Deep dive into Amazon Q Developer — AWS’s AI-powered coding assistant for building, operating, and transforming software across the entire development lifecycle.
What is Amazon Q Developer?
Amazon Q Developer is the most capable generative AI assistant for software development, with expertise in:
- Building: Code generation, testing, documentation
- Operating: AWS guidance, troubleshooting, optimization
- Transforming: Application upgrades (.NET, Java), modernization
- Data & AI/ML: Analytics pipelines, ML models, generative AI apps
Key Differentiator: Top performer on SWE-Bench Leaderboard for agentic coding capabilities.
Core Features
1. Code Generation & Suggestions
Real-time code assistance in your IDE:
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Autocomplete | Snippets to full functions as you type |
| Inline chat | Ask questions directly in code editor |
| Multi-language | 20+ languages including Python, Java, JavaScript, TypeScript, C#, Go, Rust, PHP, Ruby, Kotlin, Scala, Dart, SQL, and more |
| Context-aware | Understands your codebase and coding patterns |
Example:
# Comment: "Create a function to validate email addresses"
# Q Developer generates:
import re
def validate_email(email: str) -> bool:
"""Validates email address format using regex."""
pattern = r'^[a-zA-Z0-9._%+-]+@[a-zA-Z0-9.-]+\.[a-zA-Z]{2,}$'
return re.match(pattern, email) is not None2. AWS Expertise
Amazon Q Developer is an expert on AWS:
| AWS Capability | What It Does |
|---|---|
| Best practices | Recommends well-architected patterns |
| Service selection | Suggests right AWS services for your use case |
| Cost optimization | Identifies savings opportunities |
| Troubleshooting | Diagnoses issues in AWS console |
| Network debugging | Resolves VPC, security group, routing issues |
Available in:
- AWS Management Console
- Microsoft Teams (via bot)
- Slack (via bot)
3. Security Scanning & Fixes
Built-in security analysis:
| Security Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Vulnerability scanning | Scans code for security issues |
| Instant remediation | Suggests fixes for vulnerabilities |
| Best-in-class detection | Outperforms leading tools on most languages |
| License tracking | Identifies code licenses, provides references |
Security scanning is included in the Free Tier.
4. Code Customization
Connect Q Developer to your private repositories:
| Benefit | Impact |
|---|---|
| Better suggestions | Learns your team’s coding patterns |
| Codebase Q&A | Ask questions about internal code |
| Faster onboarding | Understand legacy code quickly |
| Style consistency | Follows your organization’s conventions |
Requires Amazon Q Developer Pro ($19/user/month).
5. Agentic Capabilities
Amazon Q Developer can autonomously perform complex tasks:
| Task Type | What It Does |
|---|---|
| Feature implementation | Writes multi-file features from descriptions |
| Unit testing | Generates comprehensive test suites |
| Documentation | Creates docs from code |
| Code reviews | Reviews PRs, suggests improvements |
| Refactoring | Modernizes legacy code |
How it works:
- You describe the task in natural language
- Q Developer creates a plan
- Autonomously reads/writes files, runs commands
- Incorporates your feedback in real-time
- Provides updates as it progresses
SWE-Bench Performance:
- Highest scores on SWE-Bench Leaderboard
- Highest scores on SWE-Bench Lite
- Solves real-world GitHub issues autonomously
Application Transformation
Amazon Q Developer includes transformation agents for application upgrades:
| Transformation Type | Details |
|---|---|
| .NET porting | Windows to Linux migration |
| Java upgrades | Java 8/11 → Java 17/21 |
| Mainframe modernization | Legacy to cloud-native |
Free Tier: 1,000 lines of code transformation per month
IDE & Tool Integrations
Amazon Q Developer works where you code:
| Platform | Support Level | MCP Support |
|---|---|---|
| VS Code | ✅ Full support | ✅ MCP supported |
| JetBrains IDEs | ✅ IntelliJ, PyCharm, WebStorm, RubyMine, GoLand, Rider, etc. | ✅ MCP supported |
| Visual Studio | ✅ Full support (2022 and later) | ✅ MCP supported |
| Eclipse | ⚠️ Limited support | ❌ MCP not supported |
| AWS Cloud9 | ✅ Built-in | ❌ MCP not supported |
| Command Line | ✅ CLI completions, natural language to bash | ❌ MCP not supported |
| GitLab | ✅ GitLab Duo with Amazon Q (GA) | ❌ MCP not supported |
| GitHub | ✅ GitHub.com and GitHub Enterprise Cloud | ❌ MCP not supported |
Model Context Protocol (MCP) Support
Amazon Q Developer supports MCP (Model Context Protocol) in VS Code, JetBrains, and Visual Studio:
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| What is MCP | Open protocol for connecting AI assistants to data sources |
| Supported servers | HTTP and STDIO MCP servers |
| Configuration | UI-based MCP server configuration |
| Tool permissions | Review and adjust tool permissions per server |
| Use cases | Connect to databases, APIs, file systems, custom tools |
MCP enables Q Developer to access external data sources and tools beyond your codebase.
Language Support
Inline Code Suggestions
Supported programming languages:
- General purpose: C, C++, C#, Dart, Go, Java, JavaScript, Kotlin, Lua, PHP, PowerShell, Python, R, Ruby, Rust, Scala, Shell/Bash, SQL, Swift, SystemVerilog, TypeScript
- Infrastructure as Code: CDK (TypeScript, Python), Terraform (HCL), CloudFormation (JSON/YAML), JSON, YAML
Code Reviews & Security Scanning
Supported languages:
- Java 17 and earlier
- JavaScript (ECMAScript 2021 and earlier)
- Python 3.11 and earlier
- C# (all versions, .NET 6.0+ recommended)
- TypeScript (all versions)
- Ruby 2.7 and 3.2
- Go 1.18+
- C (C11 and earlier)
- C++ (C++17 and earlier)
- PHP 8.2 and earlier
- Kotlin 2.0.0 and earlier
- Scala 3.2.2 and earlier
- IaC: CloudFormation, Terraform, AWS CDK
Pricing & Free Tier
Free Tier (Forever)
| Feature | Limit |
|---|---|
| Code suggestions | Unlimited |
| Security scanning | Unlimited |
| CLI completions | Free public CLI completions |
| Agentic chat | 50 interactions/month |
| Code transformation | 1,000 lines/month |
| License tracking | Included |
No credit card required for Free Tier.
Pro Tier ($19/user/month)
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Everything in Free | All free tier features |
| High limits | Unlimited agentic interactions and transformations |
| Codebase customization | Connect to private repos |
| Enterprise controls | User management, SSO, audit logging |
| Priority support | AWS support integration |
Free trial: Available for teams
Data & AI/ML Assistance
Amazon Q Developer helps with data engineering and AI/ML:
| Data/AI Task | What Q Does |
|---|---|
| SQL queries | Generate queries from natural language |
| Data pipelines | Create ETL/ELT workflows |
| ML model design | Recommend architectures and frameworks |
| Data governance | Implement access controls and lineage |
| GenAI apps | Build with Bedrock, SageMaker |
How Amazon Q Developer Compares
| Feature | Amazon Q Developer | GitHub Copilot | Cursor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Code generation | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Agentic coding | ✅ SWE-Bench leader | ⚠️ Limited | ✅ Strong |
| AWS expertise | ✅ Deep integration | ❌ Generic | ❌ Generic |
| Application transformation | ✅ .NET, Java | ❌ Not available | ❌ Not available |
| Security scanning | ✅ Best-in-class | ⚠️ Basic | ⚠️ Limited |
| CLI integration | ✅ Native | ❌ Not available | ❌ Not available |
| Free tier | ✅ 50 agentic/month | ✅ Individual plan | ⚠️ Limited trial |
| Codebase customization | ✅ Private repos | ✅ Available | ✅ Available |
| Price (Pro) | $19/user/month | $10-20/user/month | $20/user/month |
Use Cases
For Developers
- Generate boilerplate code faster
- Write unit tests automatically
- Debug complex issues with AI assistance
- Learn new frameworks and languages
For DevOps Engineers
- Troubleshoot AWS infrastructure issues
- Optimize cloud costs
- Automate deployments and operations
- Diagnose network and security problems
For Data Engineers
- Build data pipelines with natural language
- Generate complex SQL queries
- Design data governance policies
- Create analytics workflows
For Teams Migrating to AWS
- Get architectural guidance
- Follow AWS best practices
- Modernize legacy applications
- Learn AWS services interactively
Getting Started
Quick Setup (VS Code Example)
- Install extension: Search “Amazon Q” in VS Code marketplace
- Sign in: Use AWS Builder ID (free) or IAM Identity Center (Pro)
- Start coding: Get suggestions automatically as you type
- Try inline chat: Press
Cmd+I(Mac) orCtrl+I(Windows) - Use agentic mode: Describe complex tasks in natural language
CLI Setup
# Install AWS CLI v2
# Amazon Q is built-in
# Start using Q in terminal
aws q --help
# Get command suggestions
aws q "create an S3 bucket in us-east-1"TL;DR
- Amazon Q Developer = AI coding assistant for entire software development lifecycle
- Core features: Code generation + AWS expertise + security scanning + app transformation + agentic capabilities
- Top performer: #1 on SWE-Bench Leaderboard for autonomous coding
- Free tier: Unlimited code suggestions, 50 agentic chats/month, 1000 lines transformation/month
- Pro tier: $19/user/month for unlimited features + codebase customization + enterprise controls
- Platforms: VS Code, JetBrains, Visual Studio, CLI, AWS Console, GitLab, GitHub
- Unique strengths: Deep AWS expertise, application transformation, best-in-class security scanning
Resources
Amazon Q Developer Page 🟡
Official product page and free tier signup.
Amazon Q Developer Documentation 🟢
Technical documentation for setup and usage.
Amazon Q Developer Pricing 🟢
Detailed pricing and free tier information.
SWE-Bench Leaderboard 🟢
Benchmark results for agentic coding capabilities.
Get Started with Free Tier 🟢
Sign up for AWS Free Tier to access Q Developer.