# Install

> Install SSM Explorer with Poetry and put the ssm-explorer command on your PATH.

SSM Explorer is a Python CLI for AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store. It
**only reads** from AWS: no put, delete or modify call is ever made.

## Requirements

- Python **3.10** or newer.
- [Poetry](https://python-poetry.org/).
- AWS credentials in a named profile (`~/.aws/config` or `~/.aws/credentials`)
  with read access to Parameter Store.

## Install

```bash
git clone https://github.com/douklar/ssm-explorer.git
cd ssm-explorer
poetry install
poetry run ssm-explorer install
```

The last command installs a small wrapper so you can run `ssm-explorer` from
any directory. If `~/.local/bin` is not on your `PATH`, add it:

```bash
export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"
```

`pipx install .` from the repository also works.

## Check the setup

```bash
ssm-explorer check --profile my_profile --region eu-west-1
```

`check` is offline: it validates your local config, the registered commands,
your AWS profile names and the Region, without calling AWS.

## Uninstall

```bash
ssm-explorer uninstall
```

This keeps your config file. Add `--remove-config` to delete it too.

## IAM permissions

SSM Explorer uses these read APIs:

- `ssm:GetParameter`
- `ssm:GetParameters`
- `ssm:GetParametersByPath`
- `ssm:DescribeParameters`

SecureString parameters encrypted with a customer-managed KMS key also need
`kms:Decrypt` on that key. If `DescribeParameters` or `GetParameters` is denied, the default
fetch strategy falls back to `GetParametersByPath`.

Source: https://douklar.app/docs/ssm-explorer/install (SSM Explorer docs, last checked 2026-10-17)