query with JMESPath

projection

$ aws ec2 describe-vpcs --query 'Vpcs[].VpcId'
$ aws ec2 describe-vpcs --query 'Vpcs[].{VpcId:VpcId, IsDefault:IsDefault}'

selection (if the targe command has filters option, it would be faster than query.)

$ aws ec2 describe-vpcs --query 'Vpcs[?IsDefault == `true`]'
$ aws ec2 describe-vpcs --filters 'Name=isDefault,Values=true'

$ aws ec2 describe-vpcs --query 'Vpcs[?Tags[?Key == `Name` && Value == `test`]]'
$ aws ec2 describe-vpcs --filters 'Name=tag:Name,Values=test'

function

$ aws ec2 describe-vpcs --query 'Vpcs[?contains(VpcId, `vpc`)].VpcId'

$ aws ec2 describe-vpcs --query 'sort_by(Vpcs[?contains(VpcId, `vpc`)].VpcId, &VpcId)'
$ aws ec2 describe-images --filters "Name=owner-id,Values=<id>" --query "sort_by(Images[].{Name:Name, ImageId:ImageId}, &Name)"

$ aws ec2 describe-vpcs --query 'length(Vpcs[?contains(VpcId, `vpc`)])'

generate-cli-skeleton output

$ aws ec2 describe-vpcs --generate-cli-skeleton output
$ aws ec2 describe-vpcs --generate-cli-skeleton output --query 'Vpcs[].{CidrBlock:CidrBlock, VpcId:VpcId}'
$ aws ec2 describe-vpcs --query 'Vpcs[].{CidrBlock:CidrBlock, VpcId:VpcId}'

generate-cli-skeleton input

$ aws ec2 describe-vpcs --generate-cli-skeleton input | tee describe-vpcs.json
$ vi describe-vpcs.json
$ jq . describe-vpcs.json
{
  "Filters": [
    {
      "Name": "tag:Name",
      "Values": [
        "test"
      ]
    }
  ]
}
$ aws ec2 describe-vpcs --cli-input-json file://describe-vpcs.json

samples of filter

$ aws ec2 describe-vpcs --filters '["Name":"isDefault","Values":["true"]]'
$ aws ec2 describe-vpcs --filters 'Name=isDefault,Values=true'

$ aws ec2 describe-vpcs --filters '[{"Name":"tag-key","Values":["aws:cloudformation:stack-name"]}]'
$ aws ec2 describe-vpcs --filters 'Name=tag-key,Values=aws:cloudformation:stack-name'

$ aws ec2 describe-vpcs --filters '[{"Name":"tag:Name","Values":["terraform_test","mystack-VPC"]}]'
$ aws ec2 describe-vpcs --filters 'Name=tag:Name,Values=terraform_test,mystack-VPC'

$ aws ec2 describe-vpcs --filters '[{"Name":"isDefault","Values":["false"]}, {"Name":"state","Values":["available"]}]'
$ aws ec2 describe-vpcs --filters 'Name=isDefault,Values=true','Name=state,Values=available'