to_sqs

Sends messages to an Amazon SQS queue.

to_sqs queue:str, [message=str|blob, aws_region=str, aws_iam=record]

Description

Amazon Simple Queue Service (Amazon SQS) is a fully managed message queueing service for decoupling distributed systems. The to_sqs operator sends one SQS message per input event.

By default, to_sqs serializes each input event as NDJSON. Use the message option to send a specific string or blob expression instead. If the expression evaluates to null or another type, the operator skips that event and emits a warning.

The operator requires the following AWS permissions:

sqs:GetQueueUrl (only when passing a queue name; not required for URLs)
sqs:SendMessage

`queue: str`

The name of the queue to send messages to. You can optionally prefix the queue name with sqs://.

You can also pass a full queue URL (https://... or http://...) instead of a name. When a URL is given, the operator skips the GetQueueUrl lookup and talks to the URL’s host directly. Set aws_region when the queue is in a non-default AWS region so SigV4 signing matches.

`message = str | blob (optional)`

The expression that produces the SQS message body.

Defaults to this.print_ndjson().

`aws_region = str (optional)`

The AWS region for resolving the queue URL and sending messages.

If omitted, the operator uses the region from aws_iam when present. Otherwise, it uses the default AWS SDK region resolution.

`aws_iam = record (optional)`

Configures explicit AWS credentials or IAM role assumption. If not specified, the operator uses the default AWS credential chain.

{
  region: string,        // AWS region for API requests.
  access_key_id: string, // AWS access key ID.
  secret_access_key: string, // AWS secret access key.
  session_token: string, // session token for temporary credentials.
  assume_role: string,   // ARN of IAM role to assume.
  session_name: string,  // session name for role assumption.
  external_id: string,   // external ID for role assumption.
  web_identity: record,  // OIDC web identity token configuration.
}

The access_key_id and secret_access_key must be specified together. If neither is specified, the operator uses the default AWS credential chain:

Environment variables (AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID, AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY)
Shared credentials file (~/.aws/credentials)
IAM role for Amazon EC2 or ECS task role
Instance metadata service

Web identity authentication

The web_identity option enables OIDC-based authentication using the AWS AssumeRoleWithWebIdentity API. This lets you authenticate with AWS resources using OpenID Connect tokens from external identity providers like Azure, Google Cloud, or custom OIDC endpoints.

When web_identity is specified, you must also provide assume_role with the ARN of the IAM role configured to trust your identity provider.

The web_identity record accepts the following fields:

{
  token_file: string,       // path to file containing the JWT token.
  token_endpoint: {         // HTTP endpoint configuration.
    url: string,            // endpoint URL to fetch tokens from.
    headers: record,        // HTTP headers for the request.
    path: string,           // JSON path to extract token from response.
  },
  token: string,            // direct token value.
}

Exactly one of token_file, token_endpoint, or token must be specified:

token_file: Path to a file containing the JWT token. This is the standard approach for Kubernetes workload identity (EKS, AKS, GKE) where the platform mounts a token file into the pod.
token_endpoint: Configuration for fetching tokens from an HTTP endpoint. Use this for Azure IMDS or similar metadata services. The nested record contains:
- url (required): The HTTP endpoint URL that returns a token, such as http://169.254.169.254/metadata/identity/oauth2/token?... for Azure IMDS.
- headers: HTTP headers to include in the token request. For Azure IMDS, you typically need {Metadata: "true"}.
- path: JSON path to extract the token from the endpoint response. Defaults to .access_token. Set to null for endpoints that return the token as plain text.
token: Direct token value as a string. Useful for testing or when the token is available from another source.

Credentials are automatically refreshed before expiration, with exponential backoff retry logic for transient failures.

Examples

Send events to a queue

subscribe "to-sqs"
to_sqs "sqs://tenzir"

Send a specific field as the message body

from {payload: "security event detected"}
to_sqs "alerts-queue", message=payload

Use an explicit region

from {alert: "security event detected"}
to_sqs "alerts-queue", aws_region="us-east-1"

Pass a queue URL directly

from {alert: "security event detected"}
to_sqs "https://sqs.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/123456789012/alerts-queue",
  aws_region="eu-west-1"

Use explicit credentials

from {alert: "security event detected"}
to_sqs "alerts-queue", aws_iam={
  region: "us-east-1",
  access_key_id: secret("aws-key"),
  secret_access_key: secret("aws-secret")
}

Assume an IAM role

subscribe "events"
to_sqs "my-queue", aws_iam={
  region: "eu-west-1",
  assume_role: "arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/my-sqs-role"
}