As an AWS user, you're not alone in feeling overwhelmed by the comprehensive service listing in the Management Console. Unlike Heroku's application-centric interface that clearly displays active add-ons, AWS presents all available services regardless of usage.

Here are three reliable methods to identify which services you're actually using:

// Method 1: AWS Cost Explorer API
const AWS = require('aws-sdk');
const costexplorer = new AWS.CostExplorer({region: 'us-east-1'});

const params = {
  TimePeriod: {
    Start: '2023-01-01',
    End: '2023-01-31'
  },
  Granularity: 'MONTHLY',
  Metrics: ['UnblendedCost'],
  GroupBy: [
    {
      Type: 'DIMENSION',
      Key: 'SERVICE'
    }
  ]
};

costexplorer.getCostAndUsage(params, function(err, data) {
  if (err) console.log(err);
  else console.log(data.ResultsByTime[0].Groups);
});

While AWS doesn't offer native service hiding, you can implement these workarounds:

1. Bookmark Direct Links: Create browser bookmarks to frequently used services
2. Use AWS Console Mobile App: The mobile interface shows recent services first
3. Leverage AWS Organizations: Create separate accounts for different projects

For developers preferring Heroku-style navigation, consider:

# AWS CLI command to list all active resources
aws resourcegroupstaggingapi get-resources \
  --resource-type-filters "ec2:instance" "s3:bucket" \
  --query "ResourceTagMappingList[*].ResourceARN"

For EC2 instances example:

// CloudWatch metrics check for EC2 activity
const params = {
  Namespace: 'AWS/EC2',
  MetricName: 'CPUUtilization',
  Dimensions: [
    {
      Name: 'InstanceId',
      Value: 'i-1234567890abcdef0'
    }
  ],
  StartTime: new Date(Date.now() - 3600000),
  EndTime: new Date(),
  Period: 300,
  Statistics: ['Average']
};

new AWS.CloudWatch().getMetricStatistics(params, function(err, data) {
  if (err) console.log(err);
  else console.log('EC2 Usage Data:', data);
});

When you first log into the AWS Management Console, you're greeted with an overwhelming list of 200+ available services. Unlike platforms like Heroku that contextually display only relevant resources, AWS shows everything by default. This can make it difficult to quickly identify which services you're actually using in your projects.

The most reliable way to see which services you're using is through AWS Cost Explorer:

import boto3
client = boto3.client('ce')

response = client.get_cost_and_usage(
    TimePeriod={
        'Start': '2023-01-01',
        'End': '2023-01-31'
    },
    Granularity='MONTHLY',
    Metrics=['UnblendedCost'],
    GroupBy=[
        {
            'Type': 'DIMENSION',
            'Key': 'SERVICE'
        }
    ]
)

print("Active Services:")
for group in response['ResultsByTime'][0]['Groups']:
    print(group['Keys'][0])

While AWS doesn't natively support hiding unused services, you can create customized views:

• Use AWS Favorite Services: Pin frequently used services to the top
• Create Service Shortcuts: Bookmark direct links to specific service consoles
• Implement Custom Dashboards using AWS CloudFormation:

Resources:
  CustomDashboard:
    Type: AWS::CloudWatch::Dashboard
    Properties:
      DashboardName: "MyActiveServices"
      DashboardBody: |
        {
          "widgets": [
            {
              "type": "metric",
              "x": 0,
              "y": 0,
              "width": 12,
              "height": 6,
              "properties": {
                "metrics": [
                  ["AWS/EC2", "CPUUtilization", "InstanceId", "i-1234567890abcdef0"],
                  [".", ".", ".", "i-1234567890abcdef1"]
                ],
                "period": 300,
                "stat": "Average",
                "region": "us-west-2",
                "title": "Active EC2 Instances"
              }
            }
          ]
        }

Resource Groups provide a filtered view of your AWS resources across services:

aws resource-groups create-group --name MyActiveResources \
--resource-query '{"Type":"TAG_FILTERS_1_0","Query":"{\"ResourceTypeFilters\":[\"AWS::AllSupported\"],\"TagFilters\":[{\"Key\":\"Environment\",\"Values\":[\"Production\"]}]}"}'

Several tools offer Heroku-like organization for AWS:

• Former2: Generates visual diagrams of your AWS infrastructure
• Cloudockit: Automated documentation with service dependency mapping
• Hava: Real-time AWS environment visualization