Installation

ck-prism is distributed as a Python package on PyPI.

Requirements

Requirement	Notes
Python	3.7 or later
pip	Bundled with Python
Web browser	Required for the initial SSO login and when tokens cannot be refreshed silently
Operating system	macOS, Linux, WSL on Windows, or native Windows
AWS CLI v2	Optional. Needed if you want to run aws commands against the credentials written by ck-prism

Install

pip3 install ck-prism

To upgrade later:

pip3 install --upgrade ck-prism

Verify

ck-prism help

You should see a list of commands (configure, login, credential-process, profiles, setup-completions, help). If the shell reports command not found, see Make Sure ck-prism Is on Your PATH below.

Make Sure ck-prism Is on Your PATH

pip3 install ck-prism installs the executable into Python's user scripts directory. That directory is not always on your PATH by default. Add the directory for your operating system to your shell profile, then reload it.

macOS

Scripts live at ~/Library/Python/<python-version>/bin. Replace 3.9 below with your installed Python version (run python3 --version to check):

For zsh (default since macOS Catalina):

echo 'export PATH="$HOME/Library/Python/3.9/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc

For bash:

echo 'export PATH="$HOME/Library/Python/3.9/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bash_profile
source ~/.bash_profile

Linux (and WSL)

Scripts live at ~/.local/bin.

For bash:

echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

For zsh:

echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc

Windows

Scripts live at %APPDATA%\Python\Python<version>\Scripts (for example, %APPDATA%\Python\Python311\Scripts).

In PowerShell, add the directory to your user PATH:

[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable(
  "Path",
  [Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable("Path", "User") + ";$env:APPDATA\Python\Python311\Scripts",
  "User"
)

Close and reopen your terminal for the change to take effect.

---

After updating your PATH, re-run ck-prism help to confirm.

info

If you manage Python with pyenv, asdf, or a virtual environment, install ck-prism inside that environment and make sure the environment's bin directory is active. The PATH steps above only apply to system or user-level Python installs.

What Gets Installed Where

After a successful install and first run, ck-prism keeps its state in:

Path	Purpose
~/.ck-prism/config.json	Your configured profiles (domain, realm, role, region, etc.)
~/.ck-prism/tokens/	Cached SSO tokens (chmod 600)
~/.aws/credentials	Temporary AWS credentials written by ck-prism login
~/.aws/config	AWS profile metadata (region, output format)

warning

Tokens stored in ~/.ck-prism/tokens/ grant access to your AWS roles until they expire. Treat that directory like SSH keys — do not share it, do not commit it to git, do not sync it to a shared drive.

Next Steps

• Configuration — Create your first profile.