Amazon AWS users are all to familiar with the steps required to connect to an available instance. Using the management console you have to copy and paste the public dns name into the shell to construct the ssh command. It is annoying when the mouse isn’t placed just right and your clipboard is filled with more than what you want.

This lead me to create the claws gem which is a command line interface to your AWS instances. It uses the command line reporter gem to provide a character based table view of the status and customizable list of fields displaying information about each instance. It also provides a way for you to select an instance from the list and execute the ssh command to connect to it automatically. Checkout the screen shots on github and read the wiki for how to customize.