docker - cannot find aws credentials in container although they exist

what do you see if you run

ls -l ~/.aws/config

within your docker instance?

Mounting $HOME/.aws/ into the container should work. Make sure to mount it as read-only.

It is also worth mentioning, if you have several profiles in your ~/.aws/config -- you must also provide the AWS_PROFILE=somethingsomething environment variable. E.g. via docker run -e AWS_PROFILE=xxx ... otherwise you'll get the same error message (unable to locate credentials).

Update: Added example of the mount command

docker run -v ~/.aws:/root/.aws …

You can use environment variable instead of copying ~/.aws/credentials and config file into container for aws-cli

docker run \ -e AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=AXXXXXXXXXXXXE \ -e AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=wXXXXXXXXXXXXY \ -e AWS_DEFAULT_REGION=us-west-2 \ <img>

Ref: AWS CLI Doc