The official AWS CLI installation steps require downloading and running a script to install the CLI. This download contains the CLI itself, and the install script simply copies it to the right places.

However, especially for one-off uses, it’s quite convenient to not run it at all, and run it as-is:

1. Download the CLI:

$ curl "https://awscli.amazonaws.com/awscli-exe-linux-x86_64.zip" -o "awscliv2.zip"
$ unzip awscliv2.zip

2. Make the CLI itself executable:

$ chmod +x ./aws/dist/aws

3. Run the CLI:

$ ./aws/dist/aws help
Sources: docs.aws.amazon.com