Understanding Amazon CodeWhisperer Tiers

Amazon CodeWhisperer functions as an artificial intelligence-powered coding companion, providing real-time code suggestions based on natural language comments and existing code. It assists developers by offering code snippets, recommending full functions, and identifying potential security vulnerabilities. CodeWhisperer is available in different tiers to suit individual developers and organizations.

Currently, two main tiers exist:

• Individual Tier: Designed for personal use by individual developers. This tier is available at no charge and provides core features like code suggestions, reference tracking, and basic security scans.
• Professional Tier: Tailored for organizations and development teams. This tier offers advanced features necessary for managing multiple users, enforcing policies, and gaining centralized oversight. Accessing the specific capabilities associated with organizational management and enhanced features requires adopting this tier.

Key Features of CodeWhisperer Professional

The Professional tier unlocks capabilities essential for organizational deployment and management. These features extend beyond the individual developer experience to provide control, compliance, and enhanced security for teams.

Key Professional features include:

• Organizational License Management: Centralized control over user access and license assignments across a development team or entire organization.
• Policy Management: Ability to configure and enforce organization-wide policies for CodeWhisperer usage, such as controlling suggestion filtering or security scan settings.
• SSO Integration: Integration with single sign-on solutions like AWS IAM Identity Center (successor to AWS SSO) for streamlined user authentication and management.
• Enhanced Security Scan Filtering: Potential for more granular control or reporting capabilities related to the CodeWhisperer security scan feature, allowing organizations to tailor its application.
• Centralized Usage Reporting: Access to reporting features that provide insights into CodeWhisperer adoption and usage patterns within the organization.

Access to these features is contingent upon subscribing to and configuring the Professional tier.

Steps to Obtain CodeWhisperer Professional Features

Acquiring and enabling the professional features of Amazon CodeWhisperer for an organization involves setting up identity management and assigning licenses.

The general process includes:

1. Establish an AWS Account: An active AWS account is necessary to manage organizational settings and billing.
2. Set Up an Identity Source: CodeWhisperer Professional relies on an organizational identity source.
   • Organizations can use AWS IAM Identity Center (recommended for managing access to multiple AWS accounts and applications).
   • Alternatively, an AWS Builder ID organization can be created and managed.
3. Create or Connect Your Organization: Within the chosen identity source (IAM Identity Center or Builder ID organization), create a new organization or connect an existing one. This involves adding or synchronizing users and groups.
4. Enable CodeWhisperer for the Organization: Navigate to the CodeWhisperer console or use AWS APIs/CLI to enable CodeWhisperer for the organization configured in the identity source.
5. Assign CodeWhisperer Professional Licenses: Within the identity source management interface (IAM Identity Center console or Builder ID portal), assign CodeWhisperer Professional licenses to specific users or groups who require access.
6. Configure Policies (Optional but Recommended): Define and apply organizational policies for CodeWhisperer usage through the AWS Management Console or relevant APIs.

Once these steps are completed, users with assigned licenses can access CodeWhisperer Professional features via supported IDEs and extensions by authenticating through the configured identity source.

Benefits of the Professional Tier for Organizations

Migrating to or adopting the CodeWhisperer Professional tier offers distinct advantages for organizations beyond individual developer productivity gains.

Key benefits include:

• Centralized Governance: Provides administrators with a single point of control to manage user access, licenses, and feature availability across the entire team or company.
• Policy Compliance: Enables the enforcement of development standards and security policies by configuring CodeWhisperer behavior organization-wide.
• Simplified Onboarding/Offboarding: Integrates with existing identity management systems (like IAM Identity Center) for easier management of user access as team members join or leave.
• Enhanced Security Posture: Leverages organizational security scan features and potential centralized reporting to help teams identify and address code vulnerabilities more effectively and consistently.
• Scalability: Designed to support a large number of users, making it suitable for companies of varying sizes looking to deploy AI assistance across development teams.

These organizational capabilities provide the structure and control necessary for enterprise-level adoption of AI coding companions.