aws-nuke is an AWS account cleanup tool that scans every resource in an AWS account and removes them, leaving the account clean for reuse or decommissioning. It enumerates all resource types by iterating through service APIs and paginating results, then deletes resources in parallel using goroutines while throttling against AWS API rate limits.
The tool applies a config-file-driven filter pipeline that lets users exclude or include specific resource types, protect individual resources by matching their identifiers, and define reusable filter presets that can be applied across multiple accounts. When a resource type lacks a native deletion implementation, aws-nuke falls back to the AWS Cloud Control API to broaden coverage. It also supports running inside a Docker container with mounted configuration and credentials for isolated execution.
The project provides a Dockerized execution wrapper and supports limiting deletion to specific resource types or excluding resource types from cleanup entirely.