Windows VS Code Setup for Claude Code using AWS Bedrock
After searching on internet and youtube I didnt find the exact steps and the page written by claude code on there website (https://code.claude.com/docs/en/amazon-bedrock) is not very clear to do steps for windows and vs code users. Still I tried them but could not make it work on my instance. Then I had to do some deep research and the steps which worked well are published here.
PHASE 1 — One-time AWS Prerequisites
Step 1: Complete Anthropic’s First Time Use (FTU) form
Anthropic models on Bedrock have one extra requirement — you must complete a one-time First Time Use (FTU) form before invoking any Anthropic model. Without it, your first API calls may temporarily succeed but will fail with a 403 error after ~15 minutes. As per latest changes at the AWS end – you don’t need any this step to be done anymore, if you still want just ensure to select claude model and initiate a chat to check whether its accessible or not to you in your account. In case its not working for you – all other steps won’t work anyways.
Go to: AWS Console → Amazon Bedrock → Model catalog → Click any Anthropic model → Complete the use case form
This is a one-time step per AWS account.
Step 2: Verify your IAM permissions
Your AWS IAM user/role must have at minimum these permissions. Attach this policy in IAM:
{
"Version": "2012-10-17",
"Statement": [
{
"Effect": "Allow",
"Action": [
"bedrock:InvokeModel",
"bedrock:InvokeModelWithResponseStream",
"bedrock:ListInferenceProfiles",
"bedrock:ListFoundationModels"
],
"Resource": [
"arn:aws:bedrock:*:*:inference-profile/*",
"arn:aws:bedrock:*:*:application-inference-profile/*",
"arn:aws:bedrock:*:*:foundation-model/*"
]
},
{
"Effect": "Allow",
"Action": [
"aws-marketplace:ViewSubscriptions",
"aws-marketplace:Subscribe"
],
"Resource": "*"
}
]
}
Step 3: Get your inference profile ID
You must use inference profile IDs — Claude Code uses the Bedrock Invoke API and does not support the Converse API, and direct model IDs with on-demand throughput will fail.
Open PowerShell and run:
aws bedrock list-inference-profiles --region us-east-1 --profile YOUR_PROFILE_NAME
Look for profiles like us.anthropic.claude-sonnet-4-6 or us.anthropic.claude-opus-4-6-v1 in the output.
PHASE 2 — Configure AWS CLI Profiles (for multiple accounts)
Your ~/.aws/credentials file (at C:\Users\YourName\.aws\credentials) should look like this:
[account-work]
aws_access_key_id = AKIA...
aws_secret_access_key = xxxx...[account-personal]
aws_access_key_id = AKIA…
aws_secret_access_key = xxxx…
And your ~/.aws/config file (C:\Users\YourName\.aws\config):
[profile account-work]
region = us-east-1
output = json[profile account-personal]
region = us-west-2 output = json
Verify each profile works:
aws sts get-caller-identity --profile account-work
aws sts get-caller-identity --profile account-personal
PHASE 3 — Configure Claude Code Settings
AWS_REGION is a required environment variable — Claude Code does not read from the .aws config file for this setting. You can use settings files for environment variables like AWS_PROFILE that you don’t want to leak to other processes.
The global Claude Code settings file on Windows lives at:
C:\Users\YourName\.claude\settings.json
Open it (create it if it doesn’t exist) and add:
{
"env": {
"CLAUDE_CODE_USE_BEDROCK": "1",
"AWS_REGION": "us-east-1",
"AWS_PROFILE": "account-work",
"ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_SONNET_MODEL": "us.anthropic.claude-sonnet-4-6",
"ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_OPUS_MODEL": "us.anthropic.claude-opus-4-6-v1",
"ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_HAIKU_MODEL": "us.anthropic.claude-haiku-4-5-20251001-v1:0"
}
}
PHASE 4 — Configure VS Code Extension
Open VS Code → Ctrl+Shift+P → “Open User Settings (JSON)”
The environment variables format must be an array of objects with name and value properties. Add this:
{
"claudeCode.environmentVariables": [
{ "name": "CLAUDE_CODE_USE_BEDROCK", "value": "1" },
{ "name": "AWS_REGION", "value": "us-east-1" },
{ "name": "AWS_PROFILE", "value": "account-work" },
{ "name": "ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_SONNET_MODEL", "value": "us.anthropic.claude-sonnet-4-6" },
{ "name": "ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_OPUS_MODEL", "value": "us.anthropic.claude-opus-4-6-v1" },
{ "name": "ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_HAIKU_MODEL", "value": "us.anthropic.claude-haiku-4-5-20251001-v1:0" }
],
"claudeCode.selectedModel": "sonnet"
}
PHASE 5 — Switching Between AWS Accounts
There are two clean approaches:
Option A — Per-project .claude/settings.json
Inside your project folder, create .claude/settings.json:
{
"env": {
"CLAUDE_CODE_USE_BEDROCK": "1",
"AWS_REGION": "us-east-1",
"AWS_PROFILE": "account-personal"
}
}
This overrides the global settings only for that project. Claude Code merges settings with project-level taking priority.
Option B — Quick switch in PowerShell (terminal method)
Before launching Claude Code in a session, set the profile in your terminal:
$env:AWS_PROFILE = "account-personal"
$env:AWS_REGION = "us-east-1"
$env:CLAUDE_CODE_USE_BEDROCK = "1"
claude
Verification
Test each account after setup:
# Confirm AWS identity
aws sts get-caller-identity --profile account-work
# Test Bedrock access directly
aws bedrock list-inference-profiles --region us-east-1 --profile account-work
In VS Code, open the Claude Code panel. If you see authentication errors, open Help → Toggle Developer Tools → Console to see the actual error — this is far more useful than the UI message.
Common Issues on Windows
AWS_PROFILE in settings.json not working — There’s a known bug where AWS_PROFILE set inside Claude Code’s settings.json env block may not be picked up. If it hangs or 403s, set it directly in your PowerShell session with $env:AWS_PROFILE = "profile-name" before launching VS Code as a workaround.
“on-demand throughput isn’t supported” — You’re using a direct model ID. Switch to an inference profile ID (the us.anthropic. prefixed ones from Step 3).
403 error after it initially worked — You skipped the FTU form. Complete it per account.
Model not found — Pin your model versions using specific Bedrock model IDs. If you use model aliases without pinning, Claude Code may attempt to use a newer model version that isn’t available in your Bedrock account.