Amazon introduced a lookup command to CloudWatch Logs Insights that enables developers and operations teams to contextualize opaque identifiers in logs, such as GUIDs or IP addresses, by joining log data with CSV-based reference tables at query time. This feature eliminates the need for pre-processing pipelines and accelerates log analysis by converting IDs into meaningful names or team affiliations, aiding rapid troubleshooting.
Available across all commercial AWS regions, users can upload CSV files to serve as lookup tables and incorporate the lookup command in queries. Charges apply based on the scanned log data size; CSV lookup data itself is not counted. This capability supports more intuitive and efficient log investigation in complex distributed applications.
Source & further reading
Amazon CloudWatch Logs introduces lookup query command ↗Source published 2026-03-31. This report was prepared with AI assistance from the linked primary-source material. Claims and limitations should be checked against the original announcement or research.