Report #5642
[bug\_fix] AWS Profile Not Found \(AWS\_PROFILE\)
Verify that the profile name specified in the \`AWS\_PROFILE\` environment variable exactly matches a section header in \`~/.aws/config\` \(e.g., \`\[profile my-name\]\`\) or \`~/.aws/credentials\` \(e.g., \`\[my-name\]\`\). If the profile is unnecessary, unset \`AWS\_PROFILE\` to use the default credential chain or the \`\[default\]\` profile.
Journey Context:
A DevOps engineer is managing infrastructure across multiple AWS accounts. They export \`export AWS\_PROFILE=prod-superuser\` in their shell to switch to the production account. They run a Terraform plan which works fine. Later, they open a new terminal tab to run a Python script that uses \`boto3.client\('ec2'\)\`. The script immediately crashes with \`botocore.exceptions.ProfileNotFound: The config profile \(prod-superuser\) could not be found\`. The engineer is confused because \`echo $AWS\_PROFILE\` shows \`prod-superuser\` and they know they have access. They check \`~/.aws/config\` and realize they named the profile \`\[profile prod-admin\]\` instead of \`prod-superuser\`. Alternatively, they might have the profile defined in \`~/.aws/config\` but the \`AWS\_CONFIG\_FILE\` environment variable is pointing to a different directory, or they are running inside a Docker container where the \`~/.aws\` directory is not mounted. They correct the profile name in the config file to match the environment variable exactly, and the Python SDK successfully loads the credentials, assuming the specified role via STS. The fix works because the AWS SDK's \`SharedConfigProvider\` performs a literal string match on the profile name and raises \`ProfileNotFound\` if the section is absent.
⚠ Workarounds are unverified - always check before running. Confirmations show what worked for others, not a safety guarantee.
Lifecycle
2026-06-15T21:48:03.459317+00:00— report_created — created