Get latest Amazon EC2 AMI image ID just like in the AWS EC2 quick launch console using Node.js

getAmiID.ts

import * as AWS from "aws-sdk"

export const getAMIImageID = async(imageName: string): Promise<string | undefined> => {
  AWS.config.update({ region: "us-west-2" })
  const ec2 = new AWS.EC2()

  // see https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSJavaScriptSDK/latest/AWS/EC2.html#describeImages-property
  const params = {
    Filters: [
      {
        Name: "block-device-mapping.volume-type",
        Values: ["gp2"],
      },
      {
        Name: "name",
        Values: [imageName],
      },
      {
        Name: "state",
        Values: ["available"],
      },
    ],
  }

  try {
  const data = await ec2.describeImages(params).promise()
  const imageInfo = data.Images?.sort((a, b) => +new Date(b.CreationDate || 0) - +new Date(a.CreationDate || 0))[0]

  return imageInfo?.ImageId
  } catch(err) {
      console.error(err, err.stack)
      return
  }
}

;(async() => {
    // you can use wild cards in the name
    console.log(await getAMIImageID("ubuntu*20.04-amd64-server*"))
    // logs ami-082e4f383a98efbe9
})()