[scp] scp files from local to remote machine error: no such file or directory

The filename should go at the end of the path to the directory. That is, it should be the full path to the file. You are doing this from a command line, and you have a working directory for that command line (on your local machine), this is the directory that your file will be downloaded to. The final argument in your command is only what you want the name of the file to be. So, first, change directory to where you want the file to land. I'm doing this from git bash on a Windows machine, so it looks like this:

cd C:\Users\myUserName\Downloads

Now that I have my working directory where I want the file to go:

scp -i 'c:\Users\myUserName\.ssh\AWSkeyfile.pem' [email protected]:/home/ec2-user/IwantThisFile.tar IgotThisFile.tar

Or, in your case:

cd /local/path/where/you/want/the/file/to/land
scp [email protected]:/local/machine/path/to/directory/filename filename