Coding with a Cyborg: The Rise of the Amazon Q
Tags: aws, serverless, amazonq, genai
Published: 2024-05-10 07:46:25



### Introducing the Amazon Q VS Code Extension: Your AI Copilot
Imagine having an AI assistant whispering coding insights in your ear as you write. That’s the magic of Amazon Q! It has a VS Code extension seamlessly integrates with your development environment, offering real-time code completion, error detection, and even the ability to generate code snippets based on your natural language descriptions.

### Building A Lambda function with Amazon Q’s Help
Let’s use Amazon Q to streamline building our Lambda function. Here’s a glimpse of the workflow:

- Fire Up VS Code and Install the Amazon Q Extension: This is a breeze — just search for “Amazon Q” in the [VS Code extension](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=AmazonWebServices.amazon-q-vscode) marketplace and hit install.
- Project structure - Let's say we are going create a lambda function and deploy it via terraform. we can use the following basic project structure.

```
.
├── main.tf
└── send-email-lambda
    └── send-email.py
```

- Craft Your Natural Language Request: Describe what you want the function to do, I’m going to ask:
`Write a lambda function that can be used to send notifications when certain events occur. For example, a function could be triggered to send an email when a new order is placed on an e-commerce website`
- Witness the Power of AI: Amazon Q analyses your request and generates the basic Lambda function code, including boilerplate and event handling.


![Write Lambda code](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/b4s1bznx5j05s6z6aqdb.png)

- Copy the lambda code and put that in the send-email.py file.

### Adding SMS Functionality with Amazon Q’s Guidance
Now, let’s extend the Lambda to send SMS notifications as well. Here’s where Amazon Q shines again:
- New Feature: Add a comment # Send SMS after the send email section of your code and press enter. Amazon Q will start suggesting you code blocks as you go in to new lines.


![Add SMS feature](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/iqm6b6xi0rarqicfafmg.png)

- AI to the Rescue: Amazon Q taps into its knowledge base and suggests relevant code snippets or documentation links to achieve your goal.

### Terraform Takes the Wheel for Deployment
With the Lambda function primed, it’s time to deploy it using Terraform’s infrastructure as code (IaC). Terraform lets you define your infrastructure in code, ensuring consistent and automated deployments. You can use Amazon Q within VS Code to help you write the Terraform code for creating the Lambda function, IAM roles, and SNS topics needed for email and SMS notifications.

Craft Your Natural Language Request: Describe what you want the function to do, and this time I’m going to ask:
`Write a terraform code that creates a zip file of this “send-email-lambda/send-email.py” python code and deploy it to my aws account`

![Terraform code](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/qhr7l84cgfkyn1b0nf23.png)

### The Final Frontier: Deployment and Beyond!
Once the Terraform code is ready, simply run `terraform apply` to deploy your serverless notification machine to the cloud. This is just a taste of the possibilities! With Amazon Q as your AI partner, you can craft complex applications with unprecedented ease.

Remember, this is just the beginning; explore [Amazon Q](https://aws.amazon.com/q/)’s capabilities and see how it can transform your coding experience!


**Happy Coding with Amazon Q**