5 ms·

Show HN: AWS Enhancement Suite

33 points by brandonbloom 5y ago

brandonbloom 5y ago
Hey, CEO of Deref here. In our customer discovery calls, we've heard so much about how folks dislike the AWS Console. We figured we should do something about that! This extension is super early days, but we'd love for it to grow. Feedback welcome! email: hello@deref.io twitter: @deref_inc
- manigandham 5y ago
  Your actual website shows a much more interesting console product: https://www.deref.io/ https://www.deref.io/ Can you share more about that?
  - brandonbloom 5y ago
    We're in closed beta now and will have more to share publicly soon. Would be happy to chat though, so I'll reach out if you sign up for the beta invite list on our site or shoot a note to hello@deref.io
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
deanCommie 5y ago
Pro-tip: Describe what this actually does. "adding functionality like price estimates for resources." is vague. The Chrome extension asks for permission to "Read and change your data on all auth0.com sites, all aws.amazon.com sites, and all deref.io sites" That's a LOT of power to give some random extension to my AWS account. I'm not going to do that unless I know EXACTLY what it does, how, and why. The vaguer you are, the less I trust you. And that doesn't get into why this extension also needs access to auth0 which is not described in the overview at all.
- brandonbloom 5y ago
  Thanks for the feedback. We'll improve the description. As for the auth0.com access, that's a bug! It's fixed in the next release. Sorry about that. EDIT: The extension is also open source, if that's helpful at all - https://github.com/deref/deref-browser-extensions https://github.com/deref/deref-browser-extensions
  - deanCommie 5y ago
    That's super helpful! Please include that in the overview! :)
forty 5y ago
I think AWS console has a lot of room for improvement. However, I think of it as a feature, since I'm trying very hard to have people do everything in the infra as code, rather than clicking buttons, and the worse the console is, the better ;)
- brandonbloom 5y ago
  Even for read-only use cases? I've talked to _lots_ of folks who have nearly 100% IaC coverage, including folks who only expose read-only console access to the majority of their devs. But I haven't met anyone who has successfully managed to avoid logging in to the console during production incidents to debug things. One feature we're looking at potentially adding is "Go To Definition", that lets you go from the AWS Console and jump directly to the Terraform code that produced that resource. Would that be useful to you?
  - Diederich 5y ago
    > Even for read-only use cases? That's a bingo.
    - yjftsjthsd-h 5y ago
      Then how do you intend to do logs and debugging?
  - forty 5y ago
    Good point, we do use it for read only use cases indeed. And yes, jumping to terraform would indeed be a useful feature to have :)
renewiltord 5y ago
Useful enough tool. Sadly I feel very nervous about any permissions on my AWS account so it must remain uninstalled. It's a pity, though. I guess I could load it unpacked but the utility isn't high enough for me to go through the source myself.
- brandonbloom 5y ago
  Anything that we could do to assuage your concerns? For what it's worth, we're trying to be extremely thoughtful about security. If it helps (or hurts?), we're a venture backed company, have a published privacy policy, etc. We don't include any anonymous identity tracking, nor do we do any resource crawling, or anything like that. For the CloudTrail feature, we do hit a read-only API endpoint using your browser session, but we don't send any of that data to our servers. We'd never hit any read/write endpoints without you properly granting us an IAM role.
  - renewiltord 5y ago
    Actually, when I checked your website and found that you're venture-backed that made me feel safer. Ultimately, though, the problem is that the tool has too much access. I might prefer to use a role provisioned into my account to use a dedicated better console experience way before I would use the extension (it acting as me is too much exposure for me). As it so happens I find the console not too bad as it stands so maybe that's part of it. I know you guys are well-intentioned and I'm trying to help you here by finding out what the key thing is that would make me comfortable and I'm really coming up with nothing. I just think it's too much power to get not that much utility for me. Sorry I couldn't come up with anything concrete.
    - brandonbloom 5y ago
      Thanks for the perspective! I'm most interested in this: > too much power to get not that much utility Is there something that pains you enough that if you had a fix for it, you'd overlook your security concerns?
temp667 5y ago
AWS Enhancement Suite sounds like an AWS product. Consider calling it: Enhancement Suite for AWS or Deref Enhancement Suite for AWS to avoid confusion?
- dnissley 5y ago
  I think it's taking it's naming from "Reddit Enhancement Suite". I've seen a couple other extensions also go with that naming convention such as "Google Meet Enhancement Suite".
  - temp667 5y ago
    Isn't there a trademark infringement risk to put the AWS brand as the lead item? I'm surprised AWS approves of that vs the more common for AWS model for third parties targeting AWS. But great to hear AWS have such a relaxed view. The legal side would probably throw a fuss over this type of thing.
psychometry 5y ago
If there's one website I would never in a million years let a closed-source, venture-backed browser extension inject content into, it's console.aws.amazon.com. What a terrifying thought...
- Diederich 5y ago
  > closed-source Why do you believe that? https://github.com/deref/deref-browser-extensions https://github.com/deref/deref-browser-extensions
  - alexcroox 5y ago
    Chrome extensions don't mirror GitHub source, they can upload whatever they want in the zip file.
    - brandonbloom 5y ago
      It's pretty easy to install from source, if that's your preference. We'll get some build/install instructions in to the readme.
- swyx 5y ago
  i dont disagree with your point here but just want to raise awareness that anyone can "view source" browser extensions: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chrome-extension-source-v/jifpbeccnghkjeaalbbjmodiffmgedin?hl=en https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chrome-extension-s... of course, code obfuscation is a thing.
  - crtasm 5y ago
    and remember to stop the extension auto-updating (I assume Chrome lets you do so..?) and review any changes.
tuananh 5y ago
doesn't matter how cool this is, i would never use sth like this
silicon2401 5y ago
AWS is one of the main examples of why I miss the days when things had dedicated, native applications. I can imagine the AWS console being so much easier to use if it was something like Intellij. I don't even like Intellij compared to Sublime, but at least Intellij has an undeniable amount of power and customization. Meanwhile the AWS console is a drag to use and gets worse if you use the new UIs
gagejustins 5y ago
For a more secure approach, you might find Vantage interesting: https://www.vantage.sh/ https://www.vantage.sh/

33 points by brandonbloom 5y ago

Hey, CEO of Deref here. In our customer discovery calls, we've heard so much about how folks dislike the AWS Console. We figured we should do something about that! This extension is super early days, but we'd love for it to grow. Feedback welcome! email: hello@deref.io twitter: @deref_inc

manigandham 5y ago
Your actual website shows a much more interesting console product: https://www.deref.io/ https://www.deref.io/ Can you share more about that?
- brandonbloom 5y ago
  We're in closed beta now and will have more to share publicly soon. Would be happy to chat though, so I'll reach out if you sign up for the beta invite list on our site or shoot a note to hello@deref.io

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

deanCommie 5y ago

Pro-tip: Describe what this actually does. "adding functionality like price estimates for resources." is vague. The Chrome extension asks for permission to "Read and change your data on all auth0.com sites, all aws.amazon.com sites, and all deref.io sites" That's a LOT of power to give some random extension to my AWS account. I'm not going to do that unless I know EXACTLY what it does, how, and why. The vaguer you are, the less I trust you. And that doesn't get into why this extension also needs access to auth0 which is not described in the overview at all.

brandonbloom 5y ago
Thanks for the feedback. We'll improve the description. As for the auth0.com access, that's a bug! It's fixed in the next release. Sorry about that. EDIT: The extension is also open source, if that's helpful at all - https://github.com/deref/deref-browser-extensions https://github.com/deref/deref-browser-extensions
- deanCommie 5y ago
  That's super helpful! Please include that in the overview! :)

forty 5y ago

I think AWS console has a lot of room for improvement. However, I think of it as a feature, since I'm trying very hard to have people do everything in the infra as code, rather than clicking buttons, and the worse the console is, the better ;)

brandonbloom 5y ago
Even for read-only use cases? I've talked to _lots_ of folks who have nearly 100% IaC coverage, including folks who only expose read-only console access to the majority of their devs. But I haven't met anyone who has successfully managed to avoid logging in to the console during production incidents to debug things. One feature we're looking at potentially adding is "Go To Definition", that lets you go from the AWS Console and jump directly to the Terraform code that produced that resource. Would that be useful to you?
- Diederich 5y ago
  > Even for read-only use cases? That's a bingo.
  - yjftsjthsd-h 5y ago
    Then how do you intend to do logs and debugging?
- forty 5y ago
  Good point, we do use it for read only use cases indeed. And yes, jumping to terraform would indeed be a useful feature to have :)

renewiltord 5y ago

Useful enough tool. Sadly I feel very nervous about any permissions on my AWS account so it must remain uninstalled. It's a pity, though. I guess I could load it unpacked but the utility isn't high enough for me to go through the source myself.

brandonbloom 5y ago
Anything that we could do to assuage your concerns? For what it's worth, we're trying to be extremely thoughtful about security. If it helps (or hurts?), we're a venture backed company, have a published privacy policy, etc. We don't include any anonymous identity tracking, nor do we do any resource crawling, or anything like that. For the CloudTrail feature, we do hit a read-only API endpoint using your browser session, but we don't send any of that data to our servers. We'd never hit any read/write endpoints without you properly granting us an IAM role.
- renewiltord 5y ago
  Actually, when I checked your website and found that you're venture-backed that made me feel safer. Ultimately, though, the problem is that the tool has too much access. I might prefer to use a role provisioned into my account to use a dedicated better console experience way before I would use the extension (it acting as me is too much exposure for me). As it so happens I find the console not too bad as it stands so maybe that's part of it. I know you guys are well-intentioned and I'm trying to help you here by finding out what the key thing is that would make me comfortable and I'm really coming up with nothing. I just think it's too much power to get not that much utility for me. Sorry I couldn't come up with anything concrete.
  - brandonbloom 5y ago
    Thanks for the perspective! I'm most interested in this: > too much power to get not that much utility Is there something that pains you enough that if you had a fix for it, you'd overlook your security concerns?

temp667 5y ago

AWS Enhancement Suite sounds like an AWS product. Consider calling it: Enhancement Suite for AWS or Deref Enhancement Suite for AWS to avoid confusion?

dnissley 5y ago
I think it's taking it's naming from "Reddit Enhancement Suite". I've seen a couple other extensions also go with that naming convention such as "Google Meet Enhancement Suite".
- temp667 5y ago
  Isn't there a trademark infringement risk to put the AWS brand as the lead item? I'm surprised AWS approves of that vs the more common for AWS model for third parties targeting AWS. But great to hear AWS have such a relaxed view. The legal side would probably throw a fuss over this type of thing.

psychometry 5y ago

If there's one website I would never in a million years let a closed-source, venture-backed browser extension inject content into, it's console.aws.amazon.com. What a terrifying thought...

Diederich 5y ago
> closed-source Why do you believe that? https://github.com/deref/deref-browser-extensions https://github.com/deref/deref-browser-extensions
- alexcroox 5y ago
  Chrome extensions don't mirror GitHub source, they can upload whatever they want in the zip file.
  - brandonbloom 5y ago
    It's pretty easy to install from source, if that's your preference. We'll get some build/install instructions in to the readme.
swyx 5y ago
i dont disagree with your point here but just want to raise awareness that anyone can "view source" browser extensions: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chrome-extension-source-v/jifpbeccnghkjeaalbbjmodiffmgedin?hl=en https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chrome-extension-s... of course, code obfuscation is a thing.
- crtasm 5y ago
  and remember to stop the extension auto-updating (I assume Chrome lets you do so..?) and review any changes.

tuananh 5y ago

doesn't matter how cool this is, i would never use sth like this

silicon2401 5y ago

AWS is one of the main examples of why I miss the days when things had dedicated, native applications. I can imagine the AWS console being so much easier to use if it was something like Intellij. I don't even like Intellij compared to Sublime, but at least Intellij has an undeniable amount of power and customization. Meanwhile the AWS console is a drag to use and gets worse if you use the new UIs

gagejustins 5y ago

For a more secure approach, you might find Vantage interesting: https://www.vantage.sh/ https://www.vantage.sh/