diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 8ecc2a5a..47036371 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -141,6 +141,14 @@ The DB can be dumped to a file using the following:
 
 _NOTE: These commands must be run from the ``/app/`` directory on the server.
 
+### AWS:
+
+The above management commands (and others) can be run in production from an EC2 instance correctly configured. To
+aid in shell setup, the following script can be executed:
+ * ``source repo/biospecdb/scripts/prd/ec2_init.sh``
+
+_NOTE: ``scripts/prd/ec2_init.sh`` will export all AWS secrets as shell environment variables. 
+
 # Usage
 
 ### URL Paths:
diff --git a/biospecdb/util.py b/biospecdb/util.py
index 20d66053..425d36ce 100644
--- a/biospecdb/util.py
+++ b/biospecdb/util.py
@@ -3,7 +3,9 @@
 import os
 from pathlib import Path
 from uuid import UUID
+import yaml
 
+import boto3
 from django.core.exceptions import ValidationError
 from django.utils.translation import gettext_lazy as _
 import numpy as np
@@ -117,3 +119,31 @@ def get_object_or_raise_validation(obj, **kwargs):
 
 def get_field_value(series, obj, field, default=None):
     return series.get(getattr(obj, field).field.verbose_name.lower(), default=default)
+
+
+def get_aws_secret(arn, region):
+    session = boto3.session.Session()
+    client = session.client(service_name='secretsmanager', region_name=region)
+    return client.get_secret_value(SecretId=arn)['SecretString']
+
+
+def parse_secure_secrets_from_apprunner(apprunner_yaml_file=find_repo_location() / "apprunner.yaml"):
+    with open(apprunner_yaml_file) as fp:
+        config = yaml.safe_load(fp)
+    return {list(d.values())[0]: list(d.values())[1] for d in config["run"]["secrets"]}
+
+
+def get_aws_secrets(apprunner_yaml_file=find_repo_location() / "apprunner.yaml", region="eu-west-2", export=False):
+    secure_secrets = parse_secure_secrets_from_apprunner(apprunner_yaml_file)
+    unsecure_secrets = {k: get_aws_secret(v, region=region) for k, v in secure_secrets.items()}
+
+    if export:
+        for k, v in unsecure_secrets:
+            os.environ[k] = v
+
+    return unsecure_secrets
+
+
+def print_aws_secrets(apprunner_yaml_file=find_repo_location() / "apprunner.yaml", region="eu-west-2"):
+    for k, v in get_aws_secrets(apprunner_yaml_file, region).items():
+        print(f"{k}={v}")
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 0937f83e..fc06a16c 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ license = {file = "LICENSE"}
 
 requires-python = ">=3.11"
 dependencies = [
+    "boto3",
     "django",
     "django-crontab",
     "django-decorator-include",
@@ -23,6 +24,7 @@ dependencies = [
     "pandas",
     "plotly",
     "psycopg[binary,pool]",
+    "pyyaml",
     "whitenoise",
     "xlsxwriter"
 ]
diff --git a/requirements/prd.txt b/requirements/prd.txt
index 749035f9..d26332e5 100644
--- a/requirements/prd.txt
+++ b/requirements/prd.txt
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+boto3==1.34.62
 django==4.2.11
 django-crontab==0.7.1
 django-decorator-include==3.0
@@ -11,5 +12,6 @@ openpyxl==3.1.2
 pandas==2.2.1
 plotly==5.19.0
 psycopg[binary,pool]==3.1.18
+pyyaml==6.0.1
 xlsxwriter==3.2.0
 whitenoise==6.6.0
diff --git a/scripts/prd/ec2_init.sh b/scripts/prd/ec2_init.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..7223a19d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/prd/ec2_init.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+conda activate biospecdb
+
+cd repo/biospecdb
+git fetch
+git checkout origin/main -f
+
+export DB_VENDOR=postgresql
+export DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=biospecdb.settings.aws
+
+export $(python -c "from biospecdb.util import print_aws_secrets;print_aws_secrets()")