AWS Cognito Admin

Perform Cognito user pool administration without hardcoded pool IDs. All resources are discovered at runtime.

Step 0 — Discover user pools (skip if user already named a pool)

aws cognito-idp list-user-pools --max-results 60 \
  --query 'UserPools[*].{Name:Name,Id:Id}' \
  --output table --no-cli-pager

Present the list and ask the user which pool to work with (or infer from context). If there is only one pool, proceed with it automatically. Store the pool ID as $POOL_ID for subsequent commands.

Step 1 — Look up a user by email or username

aws cognito-idp admin-get-user \
  --user-pool-id "$POOL_ID" \
  --username "$EMAIL_OR_USERNAME" \
  --no-cli-pager

Display all attributes clearly. Key things to note:

• UserStatus — expected: CONFIRMED. Flag UNCONFIRMED, FORCECHANGEPASSWORD, DISABLED, or UNKNOWN.
• Enabled — if false, the account is disabled.
• All custom: attributes — these often carry subscription status, plan tier, external IDs (e.g. Stripe customer ID), and role flags. Explain what each likely means.
• UserCreateDate and UserLastModifiedDate — note if the account is newly created or hasn't been modified in a long time.

Step 2 — List users matching a filter

Use prefix filters for email or other standard attributes:

aws cognito-idp list-users \
  --user-pool-id "$POOL_ID" \
  --filter 'email ^= "user@example"' \
  --query 'Users[*].{Username:Username,Email:Attributes[?Name==`email`]|[0].Value,Status:UserStatus,Enabled:Enabled}' \
  --output table --no-cli-pager

Supported filter operators: =, ^= (starts-with), $= (ends-with), *= (contains), !=. Filterable attributes: username, email, phonenumber, name, givenname, familyname, preferredusername, cognito:user_status, status, sub.

Step 3 — Force-confirm an unconfirmed account

Use this when a user did not receive or click their confirmation email but should be activated anyway:

aws cognito-idp admin-confirm-sign-up \
  --user-pool-id "$POOL_ID" \
  --username "$USERNAME" \
  --no-cli-pager

After running, re-fetch the user (Step 1) and confirm UserStatus is now CONFIRMED.

Step 4 — Reset a user's password

Sends a temporary password reset code to the user's registered email or phone:

aws cognito-idp admin-reset-user-password \
  --user-pool-id "$POOL_ID" \
  --username "$USERNAME" \
  --no-cli-pager

After running, the user will receive a reset code and their status will change to RESET_REQUIRED. Let the user know to check their inbox.

Step 5 — Disable or enable a user

Disable (blocks all sign-in immediately):

aws cognito-idp admin-disable-user \
  --user-pool-id "$POOL_ID" \
  --username "$USERNAME" \
  --no-cli-pager

Enable (restores sign-in access):

aws cognito-idp admin-enable-user \
  --user-pool-id "$POOL_ID" \
  --username "$USERNAME" \
  --no-cli-pager

Disabling does not delete the user or their attributes. Existing sessions may remain valid until they expire — Cognito does not invalidate tokens on disable.

Step 6 — Update a custom attribute

Use this to manually fix subscription status, plan tier, role flags, or any other custom attribute:

aws cognito-idp admin-update-user-attributes \
  --user-pool-id "$POOL_ID" \
  --username "$USERNAME" \
  --user-attributes Name="custom:subscription_status",Value="active" \
  --no-cli-pager

To update multiple attributes at once, repeat Name=...,Value=... entries:

aws cognito-idp admin-update-user-attributes \
  --user-pool-id "$POOL_ID" \
  --username "$USERNAME" \
  --user-attributes \
    Name="custom:subscription_status",Value="active" \
    Name="custom:plan",Value="pro" \
  --no-cli-pager

After updating, re-fetch the user (Step 1) to confirm the change took effect.

Note: You cannot update email or phonenumber directly with this command if auto-verification is enabled. Use admin-update-user-attributes with emailverified set to true in the same call, or use the console.

Step 7 — Delete a user

This is irreversible. Always confirm before proceeding.

Before deleting, show the user's full profile (Step 1) and explicitly list what will be lost:

• The Cognito account and all its attributes
• The ability to sign in with this username/email
• Any downstream records keyed on the Cognito sub (UUID) will become orphaned

Then ask for explicit confirmation. Only proceed after the user confirms.

aws cognito-idp admin-delete-user \
  --user-pool-id "$POOL_ID" \
  --username "$USERNAME" \
  --no-cli-pager

Step 8 — Describe pool configuration

aws cognito-idp describe-user-pool \
  --user-pool-id "$POOL_ID" \
  --no-cli-pager \
  | jq '{
      Name: .UserPool.Name,
      MFA: .UserPool.MfaConfiguration,
      PasswordPolicy: .UserPool.Policies.PasswordPolicy,
      UsernameAttributes: .UserPool.UsernameAttributes,
      AutoVerifiedAttributes: .UserPool.AutoVerifiedAttributes,
      EstimatedNumberOfUsers: .UserPool.EstimatedNumberOfUsers,
      SchemaAttributes: [.UserPool.SchemaAttributes[]? | select(.Name | startswith("custom:"))]
    }'

This shows MFA settings, password policy, whether email/phone is used as the username, and all custom attributes defined in the schema.

Step 9 — List app clients

aws cognito-idp list-user-pool-clients \
  --user-pool-id "$POOL_ID" \
  --query 'UserPoolClients[*].{Name:ClientName,Id:ClientId}' \
  --output table --no-cli-pager

To inspect a specific client's OAuth flows and callback URLs:

aws cognito-idp describe-user-pool-client \
  --user-pool-id "$POOL_ID" \
  --client-id "$CLIENT_ID" \
  --no-cli-pager \
  | jq '{
      ClientName: .UserPoolClient.ClientName,
      AllowedOAuthFlows: .UserPoolClient.AllowedOAuthFlows,
      CallbackURLs: .UserPoolClient.CallbackURLs,
      LogoutURLs: .UserPoolClient.LogoutURLs,
      ExplicitAuthFlows: .UserPoolClient.ExplicitAuthFlows
    }'