aws ecr describe-repositories: Inspect ECR Repos in CI

List ECR repositories and read their registry URIs.

aws ecr describe-repositories returns metadata for ECR repositories, including the repositoryUri used in docker tag/push. In CI it confirms a repo exists before a push, or extracts the URI into a variable so workflows are not hardcoded.

Common flags

--repository-names - limit to specific repositories
--query "repositories[0].repositoryUri" - extract the push URI
--output text - emit plain text for shell capture
--region - registry region

Example in CI

Resolve the repository URI to tag an image.

shell

aws ecr describe-repositories --repository-names my-app --query "repositories[0].repositoryUri" --output text

Common errors in CI

An error occurred (RepositoryNotFoundException) - repo name does not exist in this region/account
An error occurred (AccessDeniedException) - role lacks ecr:DescribeRepositories
Unable to locate credentials - configure OIDC role auth

Key takeaways

describe-repositories returns repositoryUri for docker tag and push.
Use --query to extract the URI instead of hardcoding it in workflows.
RepositoryNotFoundException usually means a wrong region or account.