Have you ever noticed that adopting new tech tools often follows the same emotional evolution as the five stages of grief? Except in reverse - because the end result is pure joy! This pattern became crystal clear to me recently as I watched developers really get stuck in with the new Amazon Q Developer CLI agent.
If you caught my social post about this, you know I've been seeing some fascinating developer psychology happening in real-time. Let's look at each stage of this progression, and figure out what makes the Amazon Q Developer CLI agent such a powerful productivity boost for your everyday terminal workflows!
Stage 1: Denial 😤
"I don't need AI help. My terminal skills are flawless."
Look, I get it. There's something about finally figuring out the command line that gives developers a real sense of pride. Being able to navigate directories, manipulate files, and deploy applications with nothing but keyboard commands feels great, especially when you're working with such a 'minimal' user interface.
When first hearing about Amazon Q Developer CLI agent, heaps of developers react with skepticism: "Another AI assistant? No thanks, I know my Git commands by heart. I can handle my own terminal workflows."
This resistance comes from a good place - years of building muscle memory. But holding onto these habits might be keeping you from an even more efficient workflow.
Stage 2: Anger 😠
"Who needs an AI that runs Git commands? I've been typing 'git status' for 10 years!"
As awareness grows about what the Q Developer CLI agent can actually do, the second stage often emerges: indignation.
"You mean this thing can just take over my terminal? That's MY domain!" There's something almost territorial about it - the command line has been developers' private playground for decades. The idea that an AI can navigate this space feels like an invasion of a hard-earned skill set, and the muscle memory I was talking about in Stage 1.
Pride is a powerful force in tech!
Stage 3: Bargaining 🤔
"Fine, I'll just use it for AWS CLI commands I can't remember..."
This is where the tide starts turning! Developers begin to experiment, usually with very specific constraints:
"I'll only use it for those annoying AWS commands with a million parameters."
"Maybe just for checking my EC2 instances across regions."
"I guess it could help me remember those Kubernetes commands I always have to Google."
This limited testing is crucial - it's the moment developers start to see how the capabilities of Q Developer can slot in with their existing workflow, because it's not something shoved off into a corner anymore.
What makes the CLI agent so helpful is that it's not replacing your skills - it's augmenting them. Behind the scenes, it uses Anthropic's Claude 3.7 Sonnet model for multi-step reasoning, and can use the tools already installed on your system. As Srini Iragavarapu (Director of Generative AI Applications and Developer Experiences at AWS) told me in a recent interview:
"The previous version actually could talk to you. Now the latest version with the CLI is more agentic. What it does mean is not only does it talk with you, it actually talks with the tools that you provide to it through the terminal and get things done for me."
Stage 4: Depression 😢
"I've spent how many hours of my life typing 'aws s3 ls' when I could've been learning guitar?"
Once devs see what the CLI agent can do for them, there's often a moment of existential reflection: "Wait, how much of my life have I wasted on repetitive terminal commands?"
This realization can be a bit sobering. All those hours spent:
- Debugging configuration issues
- Remembering the exact syntax for complex AWS CLI commands
- Running the same sequence of Git operations over and over
- Setting up new project environments
I've seen developers become genuinely disappointed when they realize how much time they could have saved. But don't worry - this stage passes quickly!
Stage 5: Acceptance 🎉
"Q, while I grab coffee, could you scaffold a serverless app, configure API Gateway, and write unit tests that validate my Lambda functions?"
This is where the real value becomes apparent! People who get to this stage have fully integrated the Amazon Q Developer CLI agent into their workflow and figured out how to use it consistently, not just once or twice as a little test.
The CLI agent isn't just about saving keystrokes - it's about expanding what's possible in a single terminal session. As Srini shared in our interview:
"A developer finished the task where they thought it would take them three days in less than an hour. Not only did they do that, they wrote tests and were able to get it running as well."
The real power comes from the agent's ability to:
- Run commands for you using tools installed on your system
- Engage in multi-turn conversations for complex tasks
- Access and modify files in your local environment
- Query and interact with AWS resources
- Use step-by-step reasoning to solve problems
My Personal Adventure
I'll confess - I went through all five stages myself! Even though I create content about AWS tools all the time, I still found myself clinging to my familiar terminal workflow at first.
But once I reached acceptance, I started pushing the boundaries in ways I never expected. Just recently, I conducted what I now call my "Emoji-Driven Development" experiment. I was curious: if the CLI agent is truly understanding intent rather than just following commands, could it build entire applications from nothing but emoji sequences?
So I tried it. I went to my terminal, started a chat with Amazon Q Developer CLI agent, and prompted it with: "Create a Python web scraper that does: 🌐 → 📝 → 🔍 → 📊 → 💾"
I was genuinely stunned when it not only understood what I meant, but immediately generated a complete web scraper that followed the exact workflow I'd intended:
- 🌐 Fetch web content
- 📝 Parse and extract information
- 🔍 Analyze the data
- 📊 Visualize results
- 💾 Store everything
This wasn't just a neat trick - I ended up building five different Python applications using nothing but emoji sequences, from ML image classifiers to text adventure games!
I've even built entire games without leaving my terminal. As I wrote in a recent post about this: "This might seem like a silly example—after all, I built a game about dunking your face in ice water and rubbing banana peels on your face—but it demonstrates something really powerful. Amazon Q Developer CLI agent lets you stay in your command line while getting complex tasks done through natural conversation."
That's what makes this CLI agent special - it understands the way we naturally think and communicate, not just execute explicit commands.
Where Are You in all of this?
Which stage are you in right now? Still in denial about needing AI assistance in your terminal? Or have you reached acceptance and started exploring all the creative ways the CLI agent can help in your workflow?
Wherever you are, remember that this emotional path is something I've seen across different experience levels, from beginners to seasoned AWS developers.
The best part about Amazon Q Developer CLI agent is that it meets you where you are. If you just want help remembering AWS CLI parameters, it's there for you. And when you're ready to let it scaffold entire applications while you focus on higher-level architecture decisions, it can do that too.
Want to get started with the free tier of Amazon Q Developer and begin your own exploration? Check it out here.
Let me know in the comments which stage you're in, and what your experience has been with the Amazon Q Developer CLI agent so far!
About the Author: Brooke Jamieson is a Senior Developer Advocate at AWS. They make byte-sized videos with tech tips, speak at conferences all around the world, and write lots of blog posts like this one! You can follow Brooke on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, X, BlueSky and Linktree.
