Viewing Insights events for trails with the AWS CLI

This section describes how to use the AWS CLI lookup-events and list-insights-data command to lookup the last 90 days of Insights events for a trail with Insights events enabled. For information about how to enable CloudTrail Insights on a trail, see Logging Insights events for a trail using the AWS CLI.

Note

You cannot use the lookup-events or list-insights-datacommand to lookup Insights events for an event data store, however, CloudTrail Lake offers a number of sample queries for Insights event data stores. For more information, see Viewing sample queries for Insights events.

The lookup-events command has the following options:

--end-time
--event-category
--max-results
--start-time
--lookup-attributes
--next-token
--generate-cli-skeleton
--cli-input-json

The list-insights-data command has the following options:

--end-time
--data-type
--max-results
--start-time
--dimensions
--next-token
--generate-cli-skeleton
--cli-input-json

For general information about using the AWS Command Line Interface, see the AWS Command Line Interface User Guide.

Prerequisites

To run AWS CLI commands, you must install the AWS CLI. For more information, see Get started with the AWS CLI.
Make sure your AWS CLI version is greater than 1.6.6. To verify the CLI version, run aws --version on the command line.
To set the account, Region, and default output format for an AWS CLI session, use the aws configure command. For more information, see Configuring the AWS Command Line Interface.
To log Insights events on the API call rate, the trail must log write management events. To log Insights events on the API error rate, the trail must log read or write management events.

Note

The CloudTrail AWS CLI commands are case-sensitive.

Getting command line help

To see the command line help for lookup-events, type the following command.


aws cloudtrail lookup-events help

Looking up Insights events for management events

To see the 50 latest Insights events, type the following command.


aws cloudtrail lookup-events --event-category insight

A returned event looks similar to the following example,


{
    "NextToken": "kbOt5LlZe++mErCebpy2TgaMgmDvF1kYGFcH64JSjIbZFjsuvrSqg66b5YGssKutDYIyII4lrP4IDbeQdiObkp9YAlju3oXd12juEXAMPLE=", 
    "Events": [
        {
            "eventVersion": "1.09",
            "eventTime": "2024-12-11T16:52:00Z",
            "awsRegion": "us-east-1",
            "eventID": "18378b1e-3653-433d-ba1e-aa11a5958f0c",
            "eventType": "AwsCloudTrailInsight",
            "recipientAccountId": "888888888888",
            "sharedEventID": "fccb064f-dd07-4822-97c0-11115d8b91d4",
            "insightDetails": {
                "state": "Start",
                "eventSource": "cloudtrail.amazonaws.com",
                "eventName": "DescribeQuery",
                "insightType": "ApiErrorRateInsight",
                "errorCode": "QueryIdNotFoundException",
                "sourceEventCategory": "Management",
                "insightContext": {
                    "statistics": {
                        "baseline": {
                            "average": 0
                        },
                        "insight": {
                            "average": 1.2
                        },
                        "insightDuration": 5,
                        "baselineDuration": 11092
                    },
                    "attributions": [
                        {
                            "attribute": "userIdentityArn",
                            "insight": [
                                {
                                    "value": "arn:aws:sts::888888888888:assumed-role/Admin",
                                    "average": 1.2
                                }
                            ],
                            "baseline": []
                        },
                        {
                            "attribute": "userAgent",
                            "insight": [
                                {
                                    "value": "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/131.0.0.0 Safari/537.36",
                                    "average": 1.2
                                }
                            ],
                            "baseline": []
                        }
                    ]
                }
            },
            "eventCategory": "Insight"
        },
        {
            "eventVersion": "1.09",
            "eventTime": "2024-12-11T16:53:00Z",
            "awsRegion": "us-east-1",
            "eventID": "b32f10a0-f039-419a-bad7-e95468930a4f",
            "eventType": "AwsCloudTrailInsight",
            "recipientAccountId": "888888888888",
            "sharedEventID": "fccb064f-dd07-4822-97c0-11115d8b91d4",
            "insightDetails": {
                "state": "End",
                "eventSource": "cloudtrail.amazonaws.com",
                "eventName": "DescribeQuery",
                "insightType": "ApiErrorRateInsight",
                "errorCode": "QueryIdNotFoundException",
                "sourceEventCategory": "Management",
                "insightContext": {
                    "statistics": {
                        "baseline": {
                            "average": 0
                        },
                        "insight": {
                            "average": 6
                        },
                        "insightDuration": 1,
                        "baselineDuration": 11092
                    },
                    "attributions": [
                        {
                            "attribute": "userIdentityArn",
                            "insight": [
                                {
                                    "value": "arn:aws:sts::888888888888:assumed-role/Admin",
                                    "average": 6
                                }
                            ],
                            "baseline": []
                        },
                        {
                            "attribute": "userAgent",
                            "insight": [
                                {
                                    "value": "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/131.0.0.0 Safari/537.36",
                                    "average": 6
                                }
                            ],
                            "baseline": []
                        }
                    ]
                }
            },
            "eventCategory": "Insight"
        }
    ]
}

For an explanation of the lookup-related fields in the output, see Lookup output fields in this topic. For an explanation of fields in the Insights event, see CloudTrail record contents for Insights events for trails.

Looking up Insights events for data events

To see the 50 latest Insights events, type the following command.


aws cloudtrail list-insights-data --data-type InsightsEvents --insight-source arn:aws:cloudtrail:us-east-2:123456789012:trail/TrailName

A returned event looks similar to the following example,



    {  
    "NextToken": "kbOt5LlZe++mErCebpy2TgaMgmDvF1kYGFcH64JSjIbZFjsuvrSqg66b5YGssKutDYIyII4lrP4IDbeQdiObkp9YAlju3oXd12juEXAMPLE=",   
    "Events": [  
        {  
            "eventVersion": "1.09",  
            "eventTime": "2024-12-11T16:52:00Z",  
            "awsRegion": "us-east-2",  
            "eventID": "18378b1e-3653-433d-ba1e-aa11a5958f0c",  
            "eventType": "AwsCloudTrailInsight",  
            "recipientAccountId": "123456789012",  
            "sharedEventID": "fccb064f-dd07-4822-97c0-11115d8b91d4",  
            "insightDetails": {  
                "state": "Start",  
                "eventSource": "s3.amazonaws.com",  
                "eventName": "PutObject",  
                "insightType": "ApiErrorRateInsight",  
                "errorCode": "InvalidRequest",
                "sourceEventCategory": "Data",
                "insightContext": {  
                    "statistics": {  
                        "baseline": {  
                            "average": 0  
                        },  
                        "insight": {  
                            "average": 1.2  
                        },  
                        "insightDuration": 5,  
                        "baselineDuration": 11092  
                    },  
                    "attributions": [  
                        {  
                            "attribute": "userIdentityArn",  
                            "insight": [  
                                {  
                                    "value": "arn:aws:sts::123456789012:assumed-role/Admin",  
                                    "average": 1.2  
                                }  
                            ],  
                            "baseline": []  
                        },  
                        {  
                            "attribute": "userAgent",  
                            "insight": [  
                                {  
                                    "value": "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/131.0.0.0 Safari/537.36",  
                                    "average": 1.2  
                                }  
                            ],  
                            "baseline": []  
                        }  
                    ]  
                },  

                "insightSource": "arn:aws:cloudtrail:us-east-2:123456789012:trail/TrailName"  
            },  
            "eventCategory": "Insight"  
        },  
        {  
            "eventVersion": "1.09",  
            "eventTime": "2024-12-11T16:53:00Z",  
            "awsRegion": "us-east-1",  
            "eventID": "b32f10a0-f039-419a-bad7-e95468930a4f",  
            "eventType": "AwsCloudTrailInsight",  
            "recipientAccountId": "123456789012",  
            "sharedEventID": "fccb064f-dd07-4822-97c0-11115d8b91d4",  
            "insightDetails": {  
                "state": "End",  
                "eventSource": "s3.amazonaws.com",  
                "eventName": "PutObject",  
                "insightType": "ApiErrorRateInsight",  
                "errorCode": "InvalidRequest",  
                "sourceEventCategory": "Data",  
                "insightContext": {  
                    "statistics": {  
                        "baseline": {  
                            "average": 0  
                        },  
                        "insight": {  
                            "average": 6  
                        },  
                        "insightDuration": 1,  
                        "baselineDuration": 11092  
                    },  
                    "attributions": [  
                        {  
                            "attribute": "userIdentityArn",  
                            "insight": [  
                                {  
                                    "value": "arn:aws:sts::123456789012:assumed-role/Admin",  
                                    "average": 6  
                                }  
                            ],  
                            "baseline": []  
                        },  
                        {  
                            "attribute": "userAgent",  
                            "insight": [  
                                {  
                                    "value": "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/131.0.0.0 Safari/537.36",  
                                    "average": 6  
                                }  
                            ],  
                            "baseline": []  
                        }  
                    ]  
                }, 

                "insightSource": "arn:aws:cloudtrail:us-east-2:123456789012:trail/TrailName"    
            },  
            "eventCategory": "Insight"  
        }  
    ]  
}

Specifying the number of Insights events for management events to return

To specify the number of Insights events for management events to return, type the following command.


aws cloudtrail lookup-events --event-category insight --max-results <integer>

The default value for <integer>, if it is not specified, is 50. Possible values are 1 through 50. The following example returns one result.


aws cloudtrail lookup-events --event-category insight --max-results 1

Specifying the number of Insights events for data events to return

To specify the number of Insights events for data events to return, type the following command.


aws cloudtrail list-insights-data --data-type InsightsEvents --insight-source arn:aws:cloudtrail:us-east-2:123456789012:trail/TrailName --max-results <integer>

The default value for <integer>, if it is not specified, is 50. Possible values are 1 through 50. The following example returns one result.


aws cloudtrail list-insights-data --data-type InsightsEvents --insight-source arn:aws:cloudtrail:us-east-2:123456789012:trail/TrailName --max-results 1

Looking up Insights events for management events by time range

Insights events for management events from the past 90 days are available for lookup. To specify a time range, type the following command.


aws cloudtrail lookup-events --event-category insight --start-time <timestamp> --end-time <timestamp>

--start-time <timestamp> specifies, in UTC, that only Insights events that occur after or at the specified time are returned. If the specified start time is after the specified end time, an error is returned.

--end-time <timestamp> specifies, in UTC, that only Insights events that occur before or at the specified time are returned. If the specified end time is before the specified start time, an error is returned.

The default start time is the earliest date that data is available within the last 90 days. The default end time is the time of the event that occurred closest to the current time.

All timestamps are shown in UTC.

Looking up Insights events for data events by time range

Insights events for data events from the past 90 days are available for lookup. To specify a time range, type the following command.


aws cloudtrail list-insights-data --data-type InsightsEvents --insight-source arn:aws:cloudtrail:us-east-2:123456789012:trail/TrailName --start-time <timestamp> --end-time <timestamp>

The default start time is the earliest date that data is available within the last 90 days. The default end time is the time of the event that occurred closest to the current time.

All timestamps are shown in UTC.

Looking up Insights events for management events by attribute

To filter by an attribute, type the following command.


aws cloudtrail lookup-events --event-category insight --lookup-attributes AttributeKey=<attribute>,AttributeValue=<string>

You can specify only one attribute key-value pair for each lookup-events command. The following are valid Insights event values for AttributeKey. Value names are case sensitive.

EventId
EventName
EventSource

The maximum length for the AttributeValue is 2000 characters. The following characters ('_', ' ', ',', '\\n') count as two characters towards the 2000 character limit.

Attribute lookup examples

The following example command returns Insights events in which the value of EventName is PutRule.


aws cloudtrail lookup-events --event-category insight --lookup-attributes AttributeKey=EventName, AttributeValue=PutRule

The following example command returns Insights events in which the value of EventId is b5cc8c40-12ba-4d08-a8d9-2bceb9a3e002.


aws cloudtrail lookup-events --event-category insight --lookup-attributes AttributeKey=EventId, AttributeValue=b5cc8c40-12ba-4d08-a8d9-2bceb9a3e002

The following example command returns Insights events in which the value of EventSource is iam.amazonaws.com.


aws cloudtrail lookup-events --event-category insight --lookup-attributes AttributeKey=EventSource, AttributeValue=iam.amazonaws.com

Looking up Insights events for data events by dimension

To filter by a dimension, type the following command.


aws cloudtrail list-insights-data --data-type InsightsEvents --insight-source arn:aws:cloudtrail:us-east-2:123456789012:trail/TrailName 
        --dimensions <DimensionKey>=<DimensionValue>

You can specify only one dimension key-value pair for each list-insights-events command. The following are valid Insights event values for DimensionKey. Value names are case sensitive.

EventId
EventName
EventSource

The maximum length for the DimensionValue is 2000 characters. The following characters ('_', ' ', ',', '\\n') count as two characters towards the 2000 character limit.

Dimension lookup examples

The following example command returns Insights events in which the value of EventName is PutObject.


aws cloudtrail list-insights-data --data-type InsightsEvents --insight-source arn:aws:cloudtrail:us-east-2:123456789012:trail/TrailName --dimensions EventName=PutObject

The following example command returns Insights events in which the value of EventId is b5cc8c40-12ba-4d08-a8d9-2bceb9a3e002.


aws cloudtrail list-insights-data --data-type InsightsEvents --insight-source arn:aws:cloudtrail:us-east-2:123456789012:trail/TrailName --dimensions EventId=b5cc8c40-12ba-4d08-a8d9-2bceb9a3e002

The following example command returns Insights events in which the value of EventSource is s3.amazonaws.com.


aws cloudtrail list-insights-data --data-type InsightsEvents --insight-source arn:aws:cloudtrail:us-east-2:123456789012:trail/TrailName --dimensions EventSource=s3.amazonaws.com

Specifying the next page of results for Insights events for management events

To get the next page of results from a lookup-events command, type the following command.


aws cloudtrail lookup-events --event-category insight <same parameters as previous command> --next-token=<token>

In this command, the value for <token> is taken from the first field of the output of the previous command.

When you use --next-token in a command, you must use the same parameters as in the previous command. For example, suppose you run the following command.


aws cloudtrail lookup-events --event-category insight --lookup-attributes AttributeKey=EventName, AttributeValue=PutRule

To get the next page of results, your next command would look like the following.


aws cloudtrail lookup-events --event-category insight --lookup-attributes AttributeKey=EventName,AttributeValue=PutRule --next-token=EXAMPLEZe++mErCebpy2TgaMgmDvF1kYGFcH64JSjIbZFjsuvrSqg66b5YGssKutDYIyII4lrP4IDbeQdiObkp9YAlju3oXd12juEXAMPLE=

Specifying the next page of results for Insights events for management events

To get the next page of results from a list-insights-data command, type the following command.


aws cloudtrail list-insights-data --data-type InsightsEvents --insight-source arn:aws:cloudtrail:us-east-2:123456789012:trail/TrailName<same parameters as previous command> --next-token=<token>

In this command, the value for <token> is taken from the first field of the output of the previous command.

When you use --next-token in a command, you must use the same parameters as in the previous command. For example, suppose you run the following command.


aws cloudtrail list-insights-data --data-type InsightsEvents --insight-source arn:aws:cloudtrail:us-east-2:123456789012:trail/TrailName --dimensions EventName=PutObject

To get the next page of results, your next command would look like the following.


aws cloudtrail list-insights-data --data-type InsightsEvents --insight-source arn:aws:cloudtrail:us-east-2:123456789012:trail/TrailName --dimensions EventName=PutObject --next-token=EXAMPLEZe++mErCebpy2TgaMgmDvF1kYGFcH64JSjIbZFjsuvrSqg66b5YGssKutDYIyII4lrP4IDbeQdiObkp9YAlju3oXd12juEXAMPLE=

Getting JSON input from a file for Insights events for management events

The AWS CLI for some AWS services has two parameters, --generate-cli-skeleton and --cli-input-json, that you can use to generate a JSON template, which you can modify and use as input to the --cli-input-json parameter. This section describes how to use these parameters with aws cloudtrail lookup-events. For more information, see AWS CLI skeletons and input files.

To look up Insights events by getting JSON input from a file

Create an input template for use with lookup-events by redirecting the --generate-cli-skeleton output to a file, as in the following example.


aws cloudtrail lookup-events --event-category insight --generate-cli-skeleton > LookupEvents.txt

The template file generated (in this case, LookupEvents.txt) looks like the following.



{
    "LookupAttributes": [
        {
            "AttributeKey": "",
            "AttributeValue": ""
        }
    ],
    "StartTime": null,
    "EndTime": null,
    "MaxResults": 0,
    "NextToken": ""
}

Use a text editor to modify the JSON as needed. The JSON input must contain only values that are specified.

Important
All empty or null values must be removed from the template before you can use it.

The following example specifies a time range and maximum number of results to return.
```
{
    "StartTime": "2023-11-01",
    "EndTime": "2023-12-12",
    "MaxResults": 10
}                         
```
To use the edited file as input, use the syntax --cli-input-json file://<filename>, as in the following example.
```
aws cloudtrail lookup-events --event-category insight --cli-input-json file://LookupEvents.txt
```

Note

You can use other arguments on the same command line as --cli-input-json.

Getting JSON input from a file for Insights events for data events

The AWS CLI for some AWS services has two parameters, --generate-cli-skeleton and --cli-input-json, that you can use to generate a JSON template, which you can modify and use as input to the --cli-input-json parameter. This section describes how to use these parameters with aws cloudtrail list-insights-data. For more information, see AWS CLI skeletons and input files.

To look up Insights events by getting JSON input from a file

Create an input template for use with list-insights-data by redirecting the --generate-cli-skeleton output to a file, as in the following example.


aws cloudtrail list-insights-data --data-type InsightsEvents --generate-cli-skeleton > ListInsightsData.txt

The template file generated (in this case, ListInsightsData.txt) looks like the following.


{  
   "InsightSource": "",
    "DataType": "InsightsEvents", 
    "Dimensions":
    {
        "KeyName": ""
    },
    "StartTime": null,
    "EndTime": null,
    "MaxResults": 0,
    "NextToken": ""
}

Use a text editor to modify the JSON as needed. The JSON input must contain only values that are specified.

Important

All empty or null values must be removed from the template before you can use it.

The following example specifies a time range and maximum number of results to return.



{
    
   "InsightSource": "arn:aws:cloudtrail:us-east-2:123456789012:trail/TrailName", 
    "DataType": "InsightsEvents", 
    "Dimensions":
    {
        "EventName": "PutObject"
    },
    "StartTime": "2025-11-01",
    "EndTime": "2025-11-05",
    "MaxResults": 1
}

To use the edited file as input, use the syntax --cli-input-json file://<filename>, as in the following example.
```
aws cloudtrail list-insights-data --data-type InsightsEvents --cli-input-json file://ListInsightsData.txt
```

Note

You can use other arguments on the same command line as --cli-input-json.

Lookup output fields

Events

A list of lookup events based on the lookup attribute and time range that were specified. The events list is sorted by time, with the latest event listed first. Each entry contains information about the lookup request and includes a string representation of the CloudTrail event that was retrieved.

The following entries describe the fields in each lookup event.

CloudTrailEvent

A JSON string that contains an object representation of the event returned. For information about each of the elements returned, see Record Body Contents.

EventId

A string that contains the GUID of the event returned.

EventName

A string that contains the name of the event returned.

EventSource

The AWS service that the request was made to.

EventTime

The date and time, in UNIX time format, of the event.

Resources

A list of resources referenced by the event that was returned. Each resource entry specifies a resource type and a resource name.

ResourceName

A string that contains the name of the resource referenced by the event.

ResourceType

A string that contains the type of a resource referenced by the event. When the resource type cannot be determined, null is returned.

Username

A string that contains the user name of the account for the event returned.

NextToken

A string to get the next page of results from a previous lookup-events command. To use the token, the parameters must be the same as those in the original command. If no NextToken entry appears in the output, there are no more results to return.

For more information about CloudTrail Insights events, see Working with CloudTrail Insights in this guide.

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Document Conventions

Viewing Insights events for trails with the console

Viewing Insights events for event data stores