How to add existing data via dvc?

I have some data in s3 in an aws account. i want to use that in a new machine learning project that i want to work on. to be able to use that data and track that data via dvc, do i need to download the data first to my local machine first and then add it via dvc add command. I understand this will add it lo local cache in my machine and generate hash , write it to .dvc files for tracking purposes. as the data already exists on the s3 , i wouldn't need to do a dvc push after dvc add.

is my logic right here?

There are two option if you don't want to download the file locally first.

1. If you don't want to push your data back to a remote, you can use external inputs.

   You can do that with dvc add --external https://dvc.org/doc/user-guide/data-management/managing-external-data. This will work with your remote and won't push data back to any remote.

   You can also check out this question to see an example of using that https://stackoverflow.com/questions/67104752/dvc-add-external-s3-mybucket-data-csv-is-failing-with-access-error-even-aft

2. If you're ok to push your artifact back to a remote (it should be a different remote, or different path in the same remote), you can use dvc import-url https://dvc.org/doc/command-reference/import-url

Generally, the latter is preferred due to less mistakes you can do while doing so. You can check out https://dvc.org/doc/user-guide/data-management/managing-external-data for more motivation behind this recommendation.