🌈 Bifrost

A command-line utility to simplify connecting to AWS RDS/Redis instances through bastion hosts utilising AWS SSM Session Manager.

Features

• Interactive Resource Discovery: Browse and select from available AWS resources (RDS instances, Redis clusters, SSM-managed bastion hosts)
• Direct Resource Access: Connect to specific resources by name/ID when you know exactly what you want
• SSO Integration: Seamless AWS SSO authentication with token caching
• Connection Profiles: Save and reuse connection configurations (local or global)
• Keep Alive: Maintains stable connections with periodic health checks (like TablePlus)
• Smart Filtering: Only shows usable resources (SSM-managed instances, reachable databases)

Installation

Using Homebrew

1. Add the Homebrew tap:

   brew tap b3nk3/tap

2. Install Bifrost:

   brew install bifrost

Quick Start

1. Configure SSO Profile

# Set up your AWS SSO profile
bifrost auth configure --profile work

# Login with SSO
bifrost auth login --profile work

2. Connect to Database

# Interactive mode with resource discovery (recommended)
bifrost connect
# Choose "Manual setup", then leave resource fields empty to browse available options

# Using a saved profile
bifrost connect --profile dev-rds

# Direct connection when you know the resource names
bifrost connect --service rds --port 3306 --bastion-instance-id i-1234567890abcdef0

# With custom keep alive interval
bifrost connect --profile dev-redis --keep-alive-interval 60s

# Disable keep alive
bifrost connect --profile dev-rds --keep-alive=false

🔍 Resource Discovery

When using interactive mode, you can leave any resource field empty to browse available options:

• Bastion Hosts: Shows SSM-managed EC2 instances with names like "bastion-prod (i-1234567890abcdef0)"
• RDS Instances: Lists all RDS database instances in the selected region
• Redis Clusters: Shows all ElastiCache Redis clusters in the selected region

3. Manage Profiles

# Create a connection profile (resource names optional)
bifrost profile create --name staging-db --service rds
# Leave bastion/RDS/Redis fields empty during creation to browse during connection

# Create with specific resource names
bifrost profile create --name staging-db --service rds --bastion-id i-1234567890abcdef0

# List profiles
bifrost profile list

# Help
bifrost help

How It Works

Keep Alive: Bifrost automatically sends lightweight health checks to your database connections (Redis PING, RDS SELECT 1) every 30 seconds by default. This prevents timeout disconnections, similar to how TablePlus maintains stable connections.

Interactive Discovery: When resource fields are left empty, Bifrost automatically discovers available options using AWS APIs. Only shows usable resources (SSM-managed instances for bastions, reachable databases).

Flexible Resource Access: Choose between browsing available resources interactively or specifying exact names/IDs when you know them. Profiles can store specific resource names or leave them empty for discovery during connection.

Profile System: Save connection settings locally (.bifrost.config.yaml) or globally (~/.bifrost/config.yaml). SSO profiles are always global, connection profiles can be either. Profiles can include bastion instance IDs for direct connections.

Updating

Using Homebrew

To update bifrost to the latest version:

1. Update Homebrew's formulae:

   brew update

2. Upgrade bifrost:

   brew upgrade bifrost

Upcoming features

• Optional tag-based resource discovery
• Multiple simultaneous connections
• Terminal UI (TUI) interface

Developing

Requirements

• Go 1.24
• AWS CLI brew install awscli or official docs
• AWS CLI SSM plugin brew install --cask session-manager-plugin or official docs

Contributing

Still working out a few things, so unless for fixing a straightforward bug or updating docs, please drop me a message or open an issue before opening a PR. Thank you! 🙏🏻

License

MIT - see LICENSE.md

Acknowledgements

Inspiration taken from aws-sso-utils and common-fate/granted.

Special thanks to @diosdavid for the initial idea.