aws-nuke is an open-source tool that tackles the common challenge of unused resources accumulating in development and sandbox AWS accounts that can lead to cost inefficiencies. The tool identifies and removes all deletable resources within an AWS account or region with the exception of default or AWS-managed resources, essentially resetting the environment to a Day One state. It also offers customizable exclusion policies to ensure critical resources remain protected. We’ve used this tool for the default use case of cost optimization as well as for disaster recovery (DR) contexts with good results. By automating cleanup in development and sandbox environments, aws-nuke helps minimize unnecessary resource expenditure. It also facilitates efficient teardown of temporary DR infrastructure after drills or exercises. Although stable, aws-nuke is a very destructive tool and is not intended to be used in production environments. Always perform a dry run to confirm that essential resources won’t be deleted.
