Amazon Q Developer is what happened when AWS merged three developer tools into one product. It started as Fig — a beloved terminal autocomplete tool that showed dropdown suggestions as you typed CLI commands — and combined it with CodeWhisperer (AWS’s AI code completion engine) and a new conversational assistant. The result is an AI-powered developer tool that works across the terminal, IDE, and AWS console.
In the terminal, Q Developer provides the feature Fig was famous for: real-time autocomplete specs for over 500 CLI tools. Type “git ch” and see branches, type “docker run” and see image names and flags, type “aws s3” and see buckets and subcommands. These completions are context-aware, pulling from your actual environment rather than just documentation. The AI layer goes further, letting you describe tasks in natural language and get working shell commands in return.
In IDEs like VS Code and JetBrains, Q Developer functions as a code completion engine similar to GitHub Copilot, generating multi-line suggestions trained on open-source code with reference tracking for license attribution. The chat interface can explain code, generate tests, and help debug issues. For AWS-specific work, Q Developer can scan infrastructure configurations, suggest security improvements, and assist with cloud architecture questions. Amazon acquired Fig in 2023 and rebranded the combined product. It’s free for individual developers with a paid tier for professional features, and it’s already embedded in millions of developer environments through the original Fig install base.
