As explained in the GitHub repository for the prosaically named “AWS Emulator,” the tool “is a local program that serves an AWS API endpoint.” The emulator doesn’t replicate the whole AWS cloud, instead offering its APIs. “You use it to test your software without calling AWS, on your own machine, on a development server, or in continuous integration (CI),” the repo explains.
Because those tests never touch the AWS cloud, the tool is free to use. AWS wrote the emulator in Rust, a choice that senior specialist solutions architect Daniel Abib wrote helps to ensure the tool “stays light on CPU and memory on a laptop.” The emulator tool doesn’t replicate the entire AWS cloud.
Abib said it supports the APIs of AWS services that have an API model in the AWS API models repository on GitHub. The Register found over 1,300 items on that page. While the tool lets developers test APIs, it doesn’t replicate anywhere near all the features of the Amazonian cloud.
