**To describe Auto Scaling policies**

The following ``describe-policies`` command returns the policies for an Auto Scaling group::

	aws autoscaling describe-policies --auto-scaling-group-name basic-auto-scaling-group

The output of this command is a JSON block that describes the notification configurations, similar to the following::

  {
    "ScalingPolicies": [
      {
        "PolicyName": "ScaleIn",
        "AutoScalingGroupName": "basic-auto-scaling-group",
        "PolicyARN": "arn:aws:autoscaling:us-west-2:123456789012:scalingPolicy:2233f3d7-6290-403b-b632-93c553560106:autoScalingGroupName/basic-auto-scaling-group:policyName/ScaleIn",
        "AdjustmentType": "ChangeInCapacity",
        "Alarms": [],
        "ScalingAdjustment": -1
      },
      {
        "PolicyName": "ScalePercentChange",
        "MinAdjustmentStep": 2,
        "AutoScalingGroupName": "basic-auto-scaling-group",
        "PolicyARN": "arn:aws:autoscaling:us-west-2:123456789012:scalingPolicy:2b435159-cf77-4e89-8c0e-d63b497baad7:autoScalingGroupName/basic-auto-scaling-group:policyName/ScalePercentChange",
        "Cooldown": 60,
        "AdjustmentType": "PercentChangeInCapacity",
        "Alarms": [],
        "ScalingAdjustment": 25
      }
    ]
  }

To return specific scaling policies with this command, use the ``policy-names`` parameter::

	aws autoscaling describe-policies --auto-scaling-group-name basic-auto-scaling-group --policy-names ScaleIn

To return a specific number of policies with this command, use the ``max-items`` parameter::

	aws autoscaling describe-policies --auto-scaling-group-name basic-auto-scaling-group --max-items 1

In this example, the output of this command is a JSON block that describes the first policy::

  {
    "ScalingPolicies": [
      {
        "PolicyName": "ScaleIn",
        "AutoScalingGroupName": "basic-auto-scaling-group",
        "PolicyARN": "arn:aws:autoscaling:us-west-2:123456789012:scalingPolicy:2233f3d7-6290-403b-b632-93c553560106:autoScalingGroupName/basic-auto-scaling-group:policyName/ScaleIn",
        "AdjustmentType": "ChangeInCapacity",
        "Alarms": [],
        "ScalingAdjustment": -1
      }
    ],
    "NextToken": "None___1"
  }

This JSON block includes a ``NextToken`` field. You can use the value of this field with the ``starting-token`` parameter to return additional policies::

    aws autoscaling describe-policies --auto-scaling-group-name basic-auto-scaling-group --starting-token None___1

For more information, see `Dynamic Scaling`_ in the *Auto Scaling Developer Guide*.

.. _`Dynamic Scaling`: http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AutoScaling/latest/DeveloperGuide/as-scale-based-on-demand.html
