Cloud accounts and CLIs

Never used a cloud before? This page takes you from zero to "ready to deploy" on each provider. You only need one of them to start — pick AWS if you have no preference (it is the most common and its free tier covers everything in this guide).

Costs

All three providers have free tiers that cover every example in this documentation. Two rules keep you safe: use the free tier account types linked below, and run iacmp destroy when you finish experimenting — resources you delete stop counting. iacmp deploy always asks for confirmation before creating anything.

AWS

1. Create the account (free tier, needs a credit card for identity check):

• Sign up: https://aws.amazon.com/free

2. Install the AWS CLI:

# macOS
brew install awscli

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt install awscli

# Windows (PowerShell)
winget install Amazon.AWSCLI

Official installers for every OS: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/userguide/getting-started-install.html

3. Create an access key — in the AWS Console, go to IAM → Users → Create user (don't use the root account day to day), give it AdministratorAccess for now, then Security credentials → Create access key. Guide: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_credentials_access-keys.html

4. Configure the CLI with the key you just created:

aws configure
# AWS Access Key ID:     paste your access key
# AWS Secret Access Key: paste your secret key
# Default region name:   us-east-1
# Default output format: json

5. Verify:

aws sts get-caller-identity   # shows your account — credentials work
iacmp doctor                  # iacmp confirms everything is in place

Azure

1. Create the account (free credits for 30 days + always-free services):

• Sign up: https://azure.microsoft.com/free

2. Install the Azure CLI:

# macOS
brew install azure-cli

# Ubuntu/Debian
curl -sL https://aka.ms/InstallAzureCLIDeb | sudo bash

# Windows (PowerShell)
winget install Microsoft.AzureCLI

Official installers: https://learn.microsoft.com/cli/azure/install-azure-cli

3. Log in (opens the browser):

az login

4. Verify:

az account show               # shows your subscription — you are logged in
iacmp doctor

Google Cloud (GCP)

1. Create the account (free credits + always-free tier):

• Sign up: https://cloud.google.com/free
• Then create a project in the console (note its ID): https://console.cloud.google.com/projectcreate

2. Install the gcloud CLI:

# macOS
brew install google-cloud-sdk

# Windows (PowerShell)
winget install Google.CloudSDK

Official installers (all OSes, including Linux): https://cloud.google.com/sdk/docs/install

3. Log in and select your project (opens the browser):

gcloud auth login
gcloud config set project YOUR-PROJECT-ID

4. Verify:

gcloud config list            # shows account + project
iacmp doctor

For GCP deploys, also set the project in your iacmp.json:

{ "provider": "gcp", "projectId": "YOUR-PROJECT-ID" }

Terraform (optional)

Only needed for GCP deploys and for the --format tf output paths:

# macOS
brew install terraform

# Windows (PowerShell)
winget install Hashicorp.Terraform

Official installers: https://developer.hashicorp.com/terraform/install

Done — deploy

With any one of the clouds configured:

iacmp deploy --dry-run --provider aws   # shows the plan, touches nothing
iacmp deploy --provider aws             # real deploy (asks for confirmation)
iacmp destroy --provider aws            # removes everything when you're done

iacmp doctor is your friend at every step — it checks CLIs, credentials and versions, and iacmp doctor --fix installs what's missing.