AWS Development Skills

When to Use This Skill

• Building serverless applications on AWS
• Writing AWS CDK infrastructure code
• Configuring Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB, S3
• Setting up CI/CD pipelines with AWS
• Optimizing AWS costs and performance

AWS CDK Patterns

Project Structure

my-service/
├── bin/
│   └── app.ts           # CDK app entry point
├── lib/
│   ├── stacks/          # Stack definitions
│   │   ├── api-stack.ts
│   │   └── database-stack.ts
│   └── constructs/      # Reusable constructs
├── lambda/              # Lambda function code
│   └── handlers/
├── test/                # Tests
└── cdk.json

Stack Pattern

import * as cdk from 'aws-cdk-lib';
import * as lambda from 'aws-cdk-lib/aws-lambda';
import * as apigateway from 'aws-cdk-lib/aws-apigateway';

export class ApiStack extends cdk.Stack {
  constructor(scope: Construct, id: string, props?: cdk.StackProps) {
    super(scope, id, props);

    // Lambda function
    const handler = new lambda.Function(this, 'Handler', {
      runtime: lambda.Runtime.NODEJS_20_X,
      code: lambda.Code.fromAsset('lambda'),
      handler: 'index.handler',
      memorySize: 256,
      timeout: cdk.Duration.seconds(30),
      environment: {
        NODE_ENV: 'production',
      },
    });

    // API Gateway
    const api = new apigateway.RestApi(this, 'Api', {
      restApiName: 'My Service',
      deployOptions: {
        stageName: 'prod',
      },
    });

    api.root.addMethod('GET', new apigateway.LambdaIntegration(handler));
  }
}

Lambda Best Practices

Handler Pattern

// lambda/handlers/api.ts
import { APIGatewayProxyHandler } from 'aws-lambda';

// Initialize outside handler for connection reuse
const db = initDatabase();

export const handler: APIGatewayProxyHandler = async (event) => {
  try {
    const body = JSON.parse(event.body || '{}');

    const result = await processRequest(body);

    return {
      statusCode: 200,
      headers: {
        'Content-Type': 'application/json',
        'Access-Control-Allow-Origin': '*',
      },
      body: JSON.stringify(result),
    };
  } catch (error) {
    console.error('Error:', error);
    return {
      statusCode: 500,
      body: JSON.stringify({ error: 'Internal Server Error' }),
    };
  }
};

Performance Optimization

// Use provisioned concurrency for critical paths
const fn = new lambda.Function(this, 'CriticalFn', {
  // ... config
});

const version = fn.currentVersion;
const alias = new lambda.Alias(this, 'ProdAlias', {
  aliasName: 'prod',
  version,
  provisionedConcurrentExecutions: 5,
});

Cold Start Reduction:

• Keep deployment package small
• Use layers for dependencies
• Initialize connections outside handler
• Use ARM64 architecture (Graviton2)

DynamoDB Patterns

Single-Table Design

// Table with GSI for access patterns
const table = new dynamodb.Table(this, 'Table', {
  partitionKey: { name: 'PK', type: dynamodb.AttributeType.STRING },
  sortKey: { name: 'SK', type: dynamodb.AttributeType.STRING },
  billingMode: dynamodb.BillingMode.PAY_PER_REQUEST,
});

table.addGlobalSecondaryIndex({
  indexName: 'GSI1',
  partitionKey: { name: 'GSI1PK', type: dynamodb.AttributeType.STRING },
  sortKey: { name: 'GSI1SK', type: dynamodb.AttributeType.STRING },
});

Access Patterns

// User by ID: PK=USER#123, SK=PROFILE
// User orders: PK=USER#123, SK=ORDER#timestamp
// Order by ID: GSI1PK=ORDER#456, GSI1SK=ORDER#456

const params = {
  TableName: 'MyTable',
  KeyConditionExpression: 'PK = :pk AND begins_with(SK, :sk)',
  ExpressionAttributeValues: {
    ':pk': 'USER#123',
    ':sk': 'ORDER#',
  },
};

S3 Best Practices

const bucket = new s3.Bucket(this, 'Bucket', {
  encryption: s3.BucketEncryption.S3_MANAGED,
  blockPublicAccess: s3.BlockPublicAccess.BLOCK_ALL,
  versioned: true,
  lifecycleRules: [
    {
      transitions: [
        {
          storageClass: s3.StorageClass.INTELLIGENT_TIERING,
          transitionAfter: cdk.Duration.days(30),
        },
      ],
    },
  ],
});

API Gateway Patterns

REST API with Validation

const api = new apigateway.RestApi(this, 'Api', {
  restApiName: 'Service',
  deployOptions: {
    throttlingRateLimit: 1000,
    throttlingBurstLimit: 2000,
  },
});

// Request validation
const model = api.addModel('CreateItemModel', {
  contentType: 'application/json',
  schema: {
    type: apigateway.JsonSchemaType.OBJECT,
    required: ['name'],
    properties: {
      name: { type: apigateway.JsonSchemaType.STRING },
      price: { type: apigateway.JsonSchemaType.NUMBER },
    },
  },
});

const items = api.root.addResource('items');
items.addMethod('POST', integration, {
  requestModels: { 'application/json': model },
  requestValidatorOptions: {
    validateRequestBody: true,
  },
});

IAM Best Practices

// Least privilege
handler.addToRolePolicy(new iam.PolicyStatement({
  effect: iam.Effect.ALLOW,
  actions: ['dynamodb:GetItem', 'dynamodb:PutItem'],
  resources: [table.tableArn],
  conditions: {
    'ForAllValues:StringEquals': {
      'dynamodb:LeadingKeys': ['${aws:userid}'],
    },
  },
}));

Cost Optimization

Security Checklist

• Encryption at rest enabled
• Encryption in transit (HTTPS only)
• VPC for sensitive workloads
• Secrets in Secrets Manager (not env vars)
• IAM roles with least privilege
• CloudTrail enabled
• GuardDuty enabled
• Regular security assessments