Run docker-compose up db to turn on the DynamoDB container. After starting, the DB instance will be running at http://localhost:8000.

Run cp .env-sample .env to create a new .env file, and fill the variables with your AWS credentials.

In order to run aws CLI commands against the locally-running DyanmoDB instance, use docker-compose run aws SOME_AWS_COMMAND. For example, referencing the DyanmoDB developer guide, you could create a table by running the following:

docker-compose run aws dynamodb create-table --table-name Music --attribute-definitions AttributeName=Artist,AttributeType=S AttributeName=SongTitle,AttributeType=S --key-schema AttributeName=Artist,KeyType=HASH AttributeName=SongTitle,KeyType=RANGE --provisioned-throughput ReadCapacityUnits=10,WriteCapacityUnits=5

And then list all tables by running this:

docker-compose run aws dynamodb list-tables