Run AWS locally. No account. No token. No sign-up.
LocalEmu is a free, open-source AWS cloud emulator. Point the AWS CLI, boto3,
Terraform, or CDK you already use at localhost:4566 and build and test against
AWS APIs on your laptop, with no account, no credentials, and no internet.
It is a community fork of the LocalStack community edition, which was archived and put behind a mandatory account in March 2026. LocalEmu continues that codebase under the Apache License 2.0, free and tokenless.
| Project | Description |
|---|---|
| localemu | The AWS cloud emulator. 132 services, drop-in for the AWS CLI / boto3 / Terraform / CDK, Apache 2.0 |
| localemu-examples | Runnable examples and quickstarts for common AWS workflows on LocalEmu |
pip install localemu[runtime]
localemu start -d
# real AWS CLI, pointed at localhost:4566, no account needed
awsemu s3 mb s3://my-bucket
awsemu dynamodb create-table --table-name Users \
--attribute-definitions AttributeName=id,AttributeType=S \
--key-schema AttributeName=id,KeyType=HASH \
--billing-mode PAY_PER_REQUEST- Free and open. Apache 2.0, no account, no auth token, no usage gates.
- Drop-in. Keep your existing code, Compose files, and CI. Change the endpoint, not your stack.
- Real where it counts. Lambda runs in the official AWS runtime images, RDS is a real PostgreSQL or MySQL, EC2 instances are real containers, and IAM policies actually deny when enforcement is on.
- Community maintained. Open contributions, public roadmap, responsive issues.
Maintained by TocConsulting, together with the community.
LocalEmu is an independent project and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by LocalStack Inc. "LocalStack" is a trademark of its respective owner and is used here only to describe the project's origin.