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Add AWS session manager plugin to runner image

Feature Requests

The aws image includes the AWS CLI, but not the session manager plugin.

I tried to install the plugin on the fly with a before_init hook, but the spacelift user in the runner-terraform image lacks permissions for the apk database.

Also opened

https://github.com/spacelift-io/runner-terraform/issues/78.

Workaround
Create a custom image.
Problem
Status: ❌ Rejected1 comment

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Comments1

  • Black Breeze

    •

    Nov 26, 2025

    Hi King, thanks for the feature request!

    After looking into this, we've decided not to add the AWS Session Manager plugin to our default runner image. Here's our reasoning:

    This is actually the first time we've had this request in the many years Spacelift has been around, which suggests it's a fairly niche use case. Adding dependencies to the default runner image has a real cost - it gets pulled millions of times, so every addition increases bandwidth usage and startup latency for all users, even those who don't need that particular tool.

    For specialized tooling like this, we'd recommend using a custom runner image. This approach lets you tailor the image to your exact needs without impacting other users, and gives you full control over versioning and updates.

    If you need help setting up a custom image with the Session Manager plugin, happy to point you in the right direction!