aws-samplesaws-samples/sample-apex-skills/rules/AGENTS.md

sample-apex-skills / rules

AGENTS.md93 starsChanged 20 days agoMIT-0View on GitHub

- For EKS, ECS or APEX skill requests (including one that names a single skill), load the skill named exactly apex first if it is installed: it routes to the matching skill and holds the shared APEX rules. The /apex:* commands of a v1 install, such as apex:eks, are not it. If it is not installed, use the matching skill directly; the router's extra rules are then not loaded, but the rules in this file still apply. - Before any…

Where files are headingNew AGENTS.md files have more rules about keeping secrets out of the code, and fewer about code style.
Of the AGENTS.md files we read, the 31,774 first seen in the last six months, against the older ones: the kind of rule that gained most share, and the kind that lost most. About files like this in general, not this one, and an estimate, since a kind is a pattern in the words.
In this repository28 other files it gives its agents.
- apexSkill
- dotnet-aws-ecsSkill
- ecs-architectSkill
- ecs-buildSkill
- ecs-devopsSkill
- ecs-genaiSkill
- ecs-modernizeSkill
- ecs-observabilitySkill
- ecs-operation-reviewSkill
- ecs-reconSkill
- ecs-securitySkill
- eks-best-practicesSkill
- eks-buildSkill
- eks-cost-intelligenceSkill
- eks-designSkill
- eks-genaiSkill
- eks-ingress-migrationSkill
- eks-mcp-serverSkill
- eks-operation-reviewSkill
- eks-platform-engineeringSkill
- eks-reconSkill
- eks-securitySkill
- eks-upgrade-checkSkill
- eks-well-architected-reviewSkill
- graviton-migrationSkill
- skill-creatorSkill
- terraform-skillSkill
- update-docsSkill

The file

We split this AGENTS.md into the rules it gives an agent

10 rules. About 1 is common, 6 are distinctive, and 3 are very specific to this project.

≈1
Common · estimate
Many files like this have a rule of this kind.
≈6
Distinctive · estimate
This author's own choices. Worth a look.
3
Very specific
Tied to their project's names, files or tools. Probably skip.

Common
Distinctive
Very specific

Very specific:
Before any task, check for a relevant AWS or APEX skill.
line 9
Distinctive:
Prefer the AWS MCP Server for AWS interactions: it provides scoped IAM access and CloudTrail-compatible audit logging.
line 15
Very specific:
Prefer the EKS MCP Server for live cluster interactions: it provides Kubernetes API access (the self-hosted server is read-only unless run …
line 18
Distinctive:
When uncertain about specific AWS details (API parameters, permissions, limits, error codes), verify against documentation rather than …
line 28
Distinctive:
When uncertain about specific EKS details (add-on versions, API parameters, Karpenter behavior, VPC CNI settings), verify against upstream …
line 31
Very specific:
When creating infrastructure, prefer infrastructure-as-code (Terraform with terraform-aws-modules/terraform-aws-eks, AWS CDK, or …
line 41
Distinctive:
When working with infrastructure, follow AWS Well-Architected Framework principles.
line 44
Distinctive:
Never create, change or delete anything in the user's AWS account or cluster without explicit user confirmation first (for example tagging …
line 46
Common:
Never output secrets, credentials, or kubeconfig contents in responses.
line 50
Distinctive:
Avoid non-ASCII characters (including em dashes) in AWS resource names and descriptions.
line 51

≈ “Common” is an estimate: at least 1 in 5 of the 40,246 AGENTS.md files we read have a rule of the same kind, not the same words. “Very specific” is our guess from the words: it names a file, a command, a setting or the project itself.

Keep what fits and drop the rest. Your version, ready for your agents.

Files

AGENTS.md

AWS, EKS & ECS Guidance

For EKS, ECS or APEX skill requests (including one that names a single skill), load the skill named exactly apex first if it is installed: it routes to the matching skill and holds the shared APEX rules. The /apex:* commands of a v1 install, such as apex:eks, are not it. If it is not installed, use the matching skill directly; the router's extra rules are then not loaded, but the rules in this file still apply.
Before any task, check for a relevant AWS or APEX skill. APEX skills are installed at ~/.claude/skills/ (Claude Code), ~/.kiro/skills/ (Kiro) or ~/.agents/skills/ (Codex, by a manual copy), or under .claude/skills/ or .kiro/skills/ in the project for an npx apex-skills@1.3.0 --project install. Prefer skill guidance over general knowledge.
Prefer the AWS MCP Server for AWS interactions: it provides scoped IAM access and CloudTrail-compatible audit logging. If unavailable, use the AWS CLI directly.
Prefer the EKS MCP Server for live cluster interactions: it provides Kubernetes API access (the self-hosted server is read-only unless run with --allow-write; the AWS-hosted server allows the write tools its IAM policy grants unless the MCP Proxy for AWS runs it with --read-only), upgrade insights, and cluster discovery. If the user wants live cluster reads and its tools are missing, ask the user whether they are willing and interested to install the EKS MCP Server: if yes, load the eks-mcp-server skill to set it up; if no, use kubectl and the AWS CLI directly, except for eks-operation-review, which needs the EKS MCP server and stops at its pre-flight (its runbook, Pre-flight Action 3).
When uncertain about specific AWS details (API parameters, permissions, limits, error codes), verify against documentation rather than guessing. State uncertainty explicitly if you cannot confirm.
When uncertain about specific EKS details (add-on versions, API parameters, Karpenter behavior, VPC CNI settings), verify against upstream source repos rather than guessing. Cross-reference the upstream repo to confirm the behavior still holds in the current release:
- Karpenter: github.com/aws/karpenter-provider-aws
- VPC CNI: github.com/aws/amazon-vpc-cni-k8s
- AWS Load Balancer Controller: github.com/kubernetes-sigs/aws-load-balancer-controller
- CoreDNS: github.com/coredns/coredns
- EKS AMI: github.com/awslabs/amazon-eks-ami
- EKS Terraform module: github.com/terraform-aws-modules/terraform-aws-eks
When creating infrastructure, prefer infrastructure-as-code (Terraform with terraform-aws-modules/terraform-aws-eks, AWS CDK, or CloudFormation) over direct CLI commands.
When working with infrastructure, follow AWS Well-Architected Framework principles.
Never create, change or delete anything in the user's AWS account or cluster without explicit user confirmation first (for example tagging a resource, node drain, cluster or service delete, stack delete, force eviction).
Never output secrets, credentials, or kubeconfig contents in responses.
Avoid non-ASCII characters (including em dashes) in AWS resource names and descriptions. Use hyphens instead.

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