# Setup steps for HTTPS connections to Amazon CodeCommit repositories on Linux, OS X, or Unix with the Amazon CLI credential helper
Before you can connect to Amazon CodeCommit for the first time, you must complete the initial configuration steps. For most users, this can be done most easily by following the steps in [For HTTPS users using Git credentials](setting-up-gc.md). However, if you want to connect to CodeCommit using a root account, federated access, or temporary credentials, you can use the credential helper that is included in the Amazon CLI.
**Note**
Although the credential helper is a supported method for connecting to CodeCommit using federated access, an identity provider, or temporary credentials, the recommended method is to install and use the **git-remote-codecommit** utility. For more information, see [Setup steps for HTTPS connections to Amazon CodeCommit with git-remote-codecommit](setting-up-git-remote-codecommit.md).
**Topics**
+ [Step 1: Initial configuration for CodeCommit](#setting-up-https-unixes-account)
+ [Step 2: Install Git](#setting-up-https-unixes-install-git)
+ [Step 3: Set up the credential helper](#setting-up-https-unixes-credential-helper)
+ [Step 4: Connect to the CodeCommit console and clone the repository](#setting-up-https-unixes-connect-console)
+ [Next steps](#setting-up-https-unixes-next-step)
## Step 1: Initial configuration for CodeCommit
Follow these steps to set up an Amazon Web Services account, create and configure an IAM user, and install the Amazon CLI.
**To create and configure an IAM user for accessing CodeCommit**
1. Create an Amazon Web Services account by going to [http://www.amazonaws.cn](http://www.amazonaws.cn) and choosing **Sign Up**.
1. Create an IAM user, or use an existing one, in your Amazon Web Services account. Make sure you have an access key ID and a secret access key associated with that IAM user. For more information, see [Creating an IAM User in Your Amazon Web Services account](https://docs.amazonaws.cn/IAM/latest/UserGuide/Using_SettingUpUser.html).
**Note**
CodeCommit requires Amazon Key Management Service. If you are using an existing IAM user, make sure there are no policies attached to the user that expressly deny the Amazon KMS actions required by CodeCommit. For more information, see [Amazon KMS and encryption](encryption.md).
1. Sign in to the Amazon Web Services Management Console and open the IAM console at [https://console.amazonaws.cn/iam/](https://console.amazonaws.cn/iam/).
1. In the IAM console, in the navigation pane, choose **Users**, and then choose the IAM user you want to configure for CodeCommit access.
1. On the **Permissions** tab, choose **Add Permissions**.
1. In **Grant permissions**, choose **Attach existing policies directly**.
1. From the list of policies, select **AWSCodeCommitPowerUser** or another managed policy for CodeCommit access. For more information, see [Amazon managed policies for CodeCommit](security-iam-awsmanpol.md).
After you have selected the policy you want to attach, choose **Next: Review** to review the list of policies to attach to the IAM user. If the list is correct, choose **Add permissions**.
For more information about CodeCommit managed policies and sharing access to repositories with other groups and users, see [Share a repository](how-to-share-repository.md) and [Authentication and access control for Amazon CodeCommit](auth-and-access-control.md).
**To install and configure the Amazon CLI**
1. On your local machine, download and install the Amazon CLI. This is a prerequisite for interacting with CodeCommit from the command line. We recommend that you install Amazon CLI version 2. It is the most recent major version of the Amazon CLI and supports all of the latest features. It is the only version of the Amazon CLI that supports using a root account, federated access, or temporary credentials with **git-remote-codecommit**.
For more information, see [Getting Set Up with the Amazon Command Line Interface](https://docs.amazonaws.cn/cli/latest/userguide/cli-chap-getting-set-up.html).
**Note**
CodeCommit works only with Amazon CLI versions 1.7.38 and later. As a best practice, install or upgrade the Amazon CLI to the latest version available. To determine which version of the Amazon CLI you have installed, run the **aws --version** command.
To upgrade an older version of the Amazon CLI to the latest version, see [Installing the Amazon Command Line Interface](https://docs.amazonaws.cn/cli/latest/userguide/installing.html).
1. Run this command to verify that the CodeCommit commands for the Amazon CLI are installed.
```
aws codecommit help
```
This command returns a list of CodeCommit commands.
1. Configure the Amazon CLI with a profile by using the **configure** command, as follows:.
```
aws configure
```
When prompted, specify the Amazon access key and Amazon secret access key of the IAM user to use with CodeCommit. Also, be sure to specify the Amazon Web Services Region where the repository exists, such as `us-east-2`. When prompted for the default output format, specify `json`. For example, if you are configuring a profile for an IAM user:
```
AWS Access Key ID [None]: Type your IAM user Amazon access key ID here, and then press Enter
AWS Secret Access Key [None]: Type your IAM user Amazon secret access key here, and then press Enter
Default region name [None]: Type a supported region for CodeCommit here, and then press Enter
Default output format [None]: Type json here, and then press Enter
```
For more information about creating and configuring profiles to use with the Amazon CLI, see the following:
+ [Named Profiles](https://docs.amazonaws.cn/cli/latest/userguide/cli-configure-files.html)
+ [Using an IAM Role in the Amazon CLI](https://docs.amazonaws.cn/cli/latest/userguide/cli-configure-role.html)
+ [Set command](https://docs.amazonaws.cn/cli/latest/reference/set.html)
+ [Connecting to Amazon CodeCommit repositories with rotating credentials](temporary-access.md)
To connect to a repository or a resource in another Amazon Web Services Region, you must reconfigure the Amazon CLI with the default Region name. Supported default Region names for CodeCommit include:
+ us-east-2
+ us-east-1
+ eu-west-1
+ us-west-2
+ ap-northeast-1
+ ap-southeast-1
+ ap-southeast-2
+ ap-southeast-3
+ me-central-1
+ eu-central-1
+ ap-northeast-2
+ sa-east-1
+ us-west-1
+ eu-west-2
+ ap-south-1
+ ap-south-1
+ ca-central-1
+ us-gov-west-1
+ us-gov-east-1
+ eu-north-1
+ ap-east-1
+ me-south-1
+ cn-north-1
+ cn-northwest-1
+ eu-south-1
+ ap-northeast-3
+ af-south-1
+ il-central-1
For more information about CodeCommit and Amazon Web Services Region, see [Regions and Git connection endpoints](regions.md). For more information about IAM, access keys, and secret keys, see [How Do I Get Credentials?](https://docs.amazonaws.cn/IAM/latest/UserGuide/IAM_Introduction.html#IAM_SecurityCredentials) and [Managing Access Keys for IAM Users](https://docs.amazonaws.cn/IAM/latest/UserGuide/ManagingCredentials.html). For more information about the Amazon CLI and profiles, see [Named Profiles](https://docs.amazonaws.cn/cli/latest/userguide/cli-configure-files.html).
## Step 2: Install Git
To work with files, commits, and other information in CodeCommit repositories, you must install Git on your local machine. CodeCommit supports Git versions 1.7.9 and later. Git version 2.28 supports configuring the branch name for initial commits. We recommend using a recent version of Git.
To install Git, we recommend websites such as [Git Downloads](http://git-scm.com/downloads).
**Note**
Git is an evolving, regularly updated platform. Occasionally, a feature change might affect the way it works with CodeCommit. If you encounter issues with a specific version of Git and CodeCommit, review the information in [Troubleshooting](troubleshooting.md).
## Step 3: Set up the credential helper
1. From the terminal, use Git to run **git config**, specifying the use of the Git credential helper with the Amazon credential profile, and enabling the Git credential helper to send the path to repositories:
```
git config --global credential.helper '!aws codecommit credential-helper $@'
git config --global credential.UseHttpPath true
```
**Tip**
The credential helper uses the default Amazon credential profile or the Amazon EC2 instance role. You can specify a profile to use, such as `CodeCommitProfile`, if you have created an Amazon credential profile to use with CodeCommit:
```
git config --global credential.helper '!aws --profile CodeCommitProfile codecommit credential-helper $@'
```
If your profile name contains spaces, make sure you enclose the name in quotation marks (").
You can configure profiles per repository instead of globally by using `--local` instead of `--global`.
The Git credential helper writes the following value to `~/.gitconfig`:
```
[credential]
helper = !aws --profile CodeCommitProfile codecommit credential-helper $@
UseHttpPath = true
```
**Important**
If you want to use a different IAM user on the same local machine for CodeCommit, you must run the **git config** command again and specify a different Amazon credential profile.
1. Run **git config --global --edit** to verify the preceding value has been written to `~/.gitconfig`. If successful, you should see the preceding value (in addition to values that might already exist in the Git global configuration file). To exit, typically you would type **:q**, and then press Enter.
If you experience problems after you configure your credential helper, see [Troubleshooting](troubleshooting.md).
**Important**
If you are using macOS, use the following steps to ensure the credential helper is configured correctly.
1. If you are using macOS, use HTTPS to [connect to a CodeCommit repository](how-to-connect.md). After you connect to a CodeCommit repository with HTTPS for the first time, subsequent access fails after about 15 minutes. The default Git version on macOS uses the Keychain Access utility to store credentials. For security measures, the password generated for access to your CodeCommit repository is temporary, so the credentials stored in the keychain stop working after about 15 minutes. To prevent these expired credentials from being used, you must either:
+ Install a version of Git that does not use the keychain by default.
+ Configure the Keychain Access utility to not provide credentials for CodeCommit repositories.
1. Open the Keychain Access utility. (You can use Finder to locate it.)
1. Search for `git-codecommit.us-east-2.amazonaws.com`. Highlight the row, open the context menu or right-click it, and then choose **Get Info**.
1. Choose the **Access Control** tab.
1. In **Confirm before allowing access**, choose `git-credential-osxkeychain`, and then choose the minus sign to remove it from the list.
**Note**
After you remove `git-credential-osxkeychain` from the list, you see a pop-up message whenever you run a Git command. Choose **Deny** to continue. If you find the pop-ups too disruptive, here are some other options:
Connect to CodeCommit using SSH instead of HTTPS. For more information, see [For SSH connections on Linux, OS X, or Unix](setting-up-ssh-unixes.md).
In the Keychain Access utility, on the **Access Control** tab for `git-codecommit.us-east-2.amazonaws.com`, choose the **Allow all applications to access this item (access to this item is not restricted)** option. This prevents the pop-ups, but the credentials eventually expire (on average, in about 15 minutes) and you see a 403 error message. When this happens, you must delete the keychain item to restore functionality.
For more information, see [Git for macOS: I configured the credential helper successfully, but now I am denied access to my repository (403)](troubleshooting-ch.md#troubleshooting-macoshttps).
## Step 4: Connect to the CodeCommit console and clone the repository
If an administrator has already sent you the name and connection details for the CodeCommit repository, you can skip this step and clone the repository directly.
**To connect to a CodeCommit repository**
1. Open the CodeCommit console at [https://console.www.amazonaws.cn/codesuite/codecommit/home](https://console.www.amazonaws.cn/codesuite/codecommit/home).
1. In the region selector, choose the Amazon Web Services Region where the repository was created. Repositories are specific to an Amazon Web Services Region. For more information, see [Regions and Git connection endpoints](regions.md).
1. Find the repository you want to connect to from the list and choose it. Choose **Clone URL**, and then choose the protocol you want to use when cloning or connecting to the repository. This copies the clone URL.
+ Copy the HTTPS URL if you are using either Git credentials with your IAM user or the credential helper included with the Amazon CLI.
+ Copy the HTTPS (GRC) URL if you are using the **git-remote-codecommit** command on your local computer.
+ Copy the SSH URL if you are using an SSH public/private key pair with your IAM user.
**Note**
If you see a **Welcome** page instead of a list of repositories, there are no repositories associated with your Amazon account in the Amazon Web Services Region where you are signed in. To create a repository, see [Create an Amazon CodeCommit repository](how-to-create-repository.md) or follow the steps in the [Getting started with Git and CodeCommit](getting-started.md) tutorial.
1. Open a terminal and run the **git clone** command with the HTTPS URL you copied. For example, to clone a repository named *MyDemoRepo* to a local repo named *my-demo-repo* in the China (Beijing) Region:
```
git clone https://git-codecommit.cn-north-1.amazonaws.com.cn/v1/repos/MyDemoRepo my-demo-repo
```
## Next steps
You have completed the prerequisites. Follow the steps in [Getting started with CodeCommit ](getting-started-cc.md) to start using CodeCommit.