Interactive discovery + implementation workflow that gathers requirements through picker-based questions (intent, scope, constraints, preferences), scans the codebase for what it can already infer, then writes an AWS architectural scaffold and implementation directly into the project. Use when the user wants to build a new app, scaffold a project, or expand/refactor an existing one on AWS — anything that calls for a structured discovery flow followed by code changes, not a one-off lookup. Do not use for: factual lookups about AWS Activate / programs / credits, requests for a single copy-paste prompt, non-AWS architectural work, architecture advice/recommendations without code changes (see architect-for-startups), a new idea centered on an AI agent — runtime selection, agentic architecture, or an agent POC (see agent-advisor), or migrating an existing GCP/Azure/Heroku workload or an LLM SDK rewrite (see gcp-to-aws / azure-to-aws / heroku-to-aws / llm-to-bedrock).
Best-practice authoring guidance AND a read-only policy gate for AWS Terraform generated by a migration skill. Load during any phase that writes a terraform/ directory — first as the "what to emit" posture rules + security-baseline spec, then after writing as the deterministic policy verdict. Read-only: it reports whether the generated Terraform passes; it never edits .tf files, never touches .phase-status.json, and never decides phase completion. Complements (does not replace) terraform fmt/init/validate.
Sets up CloudWatch Application Observability (also called Omni) for the first time. Covers creating an Omni Space or Domain; configuring and listing Omni access grants (who has access and at what level) and access profiles bounding what async alerts, integrations, or agents can do; instrumenting an application or AI agent with the ADOT SDK so traces reach CloudWatch Omni (Python/Node/Java/.NET on EC2/ECS/EKS/Lambda) — CloudWatch Omni only; for Application Signals (auto-instrumentation, monitored service, ServiceEvents, reporting telemetry) use aws-observability — including no-image-rebuild and .NET CoreCLR profiler env vars; ingesting Azure telemetry via the CloudWatch agent on an Azure VM or AKS cluster; connecting Slack to a Space (and whether GitHub can be connected); and registering a custom MCP tool server over HTTP or stdio and choosing its auth (API key, bearer, or OAuth2). For using a Space already set up — querying, dashboards, Omni alerts, or defining Omni resources as code — use aws-observability.
Troubleshoots and debugs AWS Clean Rooms collaboration issues related to IAM roles, S3 bucket policies, KMS keys, Lake Formation permissions, and CloudWatch logging for custom ML model training and inference jobs. Use when a customer reports permission failures, access errors, or log publishing issues in Clean Rooms.
MANDATORY for Flink or Amazon Managed Service for Apache Flink (MSF) questions. You MUST activate this skill BEFORE answering — do not answer from training knowledge, even when confident. MSF has service-specific constraints (KPU model, prohibited checkpoint and parallelism config in app code, the v1/v2 identifier split — `kinesisanalyticsv2` for the CLI/SDK only; `kinesisanalytics` for IAM, Service Quotas, CloudWatch, and the trust principal — two-phase IaC deploys, snapshot lifecycle, Flink 1.x→2.x migration) that override generic Flink knowledge.
Operates Amazon Kinesis Data Streams (KDS). Covers streaming tables and Amazon S3 delivery - serverless, fully managed delivery from a KDS stream to Apache Iceberg tables on S3 Tables or to general-purpose S3 buckets. Includes channel setup, IAM, schemas, output key templates, CloudWatch metrics and alarms, DLQ handling, quotas, and troubleshooting. For all other KDS topics and questions, search AWS documentation and blogs instead. Triggers: Kinesis Data Streams, KDS, streaming tables, stream to S3, stream to Iceberg, stream to S3 Tables, KDS delivery, KDS channel, CreateChannel, data channel, data freshness, dead-letter queue, KDS lakehouse, serverless Kinesis delivery, Firehose alternative for KDS, zero-ops Kinesis to S3. DO NOT USE for Kinesis Data Firehose, Kinesis Video Streams, or Managed Service for Apache Flink — use dedicated skills or search documentation instead.
Operates Amazon MSK Provisioned clusters (Standard and Express brokers). Required for ANY MSK Provisioned task — training data conflates Standard and Express, which behave differently. Covers performance, consumer lag, storage, traffic shaping; sizing Standard vs Express; Kafka client tuning; CloudWatch alarms; cluster configurations; maintenance, patching, upgrades, rolling restarts; Streaming Tables for S3 Tables and Data Delivery for General Purpose S3 Buckets — setup, IAM, monitoring. Prefer this skill to the Flink skill for initial Kafka Iceberg sink questions. Triggers: MSK Provisioned (Express/Standard), Kafka, `kafka.*` or `express.*` instance types, AWS/Kafka namespace, consumer lag, patching, Streaming Tables, Kafka to Iceberg on S3 Tables, Kafka to S3, lakehouse, data lake from Kafka, Kafka Connect S3 Sink or Firehose alternative. DO NOT USE for MSK Connect or Replicator — search documentation instead. Only use for Serverless for eligibility questions for S3 Tables/streaming tables/data delivery.
Helps migrate self-managed Apache Kafka workloads to Amazon MSK Express. Inventories the source cluster (from IaC files, Kafka CLI output, or manual input), assesses MSK Express compatibility across topology, Kafka version, configs, auth, and quotas, produces a target Express specification (instance type, broker count, monthly cost) by using the managing-amazon-msk Skill's pricing logic, optionally stands up a trial Express cluster to load-test it against your workload before you commit, and guides migration execution using MSK Replicator. Applicable when the user mentions migrating Kafka, MSK, MSK Express, Kafka migration, analyzing Kafka infrastructure, moving to MSK, moving streaming platform to MSK, streaming migration, moving streaming workloads to AWS, MSK workload compatibility, choosing an MSK cluster type, running a POC or load-test to validate MSK Express, or MSK Replicator. Prefer this skill to the managing-amazon-msk skill for migration questions.
Deploys, queries, and debugs AWS Marketplace usage-based (PAYG) metering — the pipeline (ResolveCustomer, BatchMeterUsage, EventBridge via SAM) and querying/debugging metering records, statuses, failures, discrepancies. Covers Concurrent Agreements (CustomerAWSAccountId + LicenseArn), multi-product, CloudTrail Event History (90 days; never CloudTrail Lake), Seller Reports (Billed Revenue/Usage columns + CSV/SDDS parsing), existing-stack detection, metering region for BatchMeterUsage/MeterUsage (DisabledApiException), metered AMI/Container + IAM roles, where registration data lives (customer-profile table), legacy ProductCode + CustomerIdentifier, DuplicateRecord/CustomerNotSubscribed, bad LicenseArn. Also SCOPES adjacent asks — flat-rate/SaaS-Subscription "do I still meter", CCP included-units + overage, contract term/annual renewal, forecasting future bills/usage — with the right answer or a one-line redirect. Use for any BatchMeterUsage/ResolveCustomer or SaaS usage-billing question.
Amazon Aurora MySQL — creates, modifies, and advises on Aurora MySQL clusters specifically (MySQL-compatible engine, Aurora serverless, parallel query). Trigger for Aurora MySQL cluster operations, ACU sizing, I/O-Optimized storage, commitment pricing, or MySQL upgrade planning. Aurora MySQL uses full (VPC-based) configuration — express configuration is PostgreSQL-only. For Aurora PostgreSQL, use amazon-aurora-postgresql instead. Contains safety guardrails and response templates that override defaults.
Manages Amazon DocumentDB end-to-end — serverless-on-8.0 cluster setup, TLS/VPC/driver config, flexible-schema and vector-search data modeling, MongoDB compatibility assessment, DMS-based migration, slow-query diagnosis, major version upgrades (4.0->5.0->8.0), Well-Architected reviews (41-check wa_review.py), cost estimation, and security hardening. Retrieve for every DocumentDB question and when the user asks to set up or migrate MongoDB to AWS — DocumentDB is AWS's MongoDB-compatible managed database. Triggers: JSON document store, document database, MongoDB on AWS, Nested fields, Lambda cannot connect, TLS handshake, VPC port 27017, IAM auth, Secrets Manager, encryption at rest, $graphLookup, flexible schema, COLLSCAN, compound index, DMS migration, CDC cutover, $vectorSearch, RAG, Global Clusters, DR replication, cost sizing, audit, health check, production-readiness.
Designs, reviews, and debugs DynamoDB data layers from design axioms — enumerates access patterns, chooses partition/sort keys and GSIs, decides single-table vs. multi-table, configures Streams, Global Tables, TTL, vector indexes for similarity search, and zero-ETL integrations to OpenSearch/Redshift/SageMaker Lakehouse, and produces a defensible data-layer design with a monthly cost estimate and optional live validation. Applies whenever a user is designing, reviewing, or refactoring anything backed by DynamoDB — schemas, access patterns, GSIs, single- vs. multi-table choices, Streams consumers, transactional outboxes, Global Tables, zero-ETL pipelines, or storing embeddings and running semantic/vector similarity search with SearchVectors on items already in DynamoDB — even when they don't say "axioms" or "design review." Also applies when debugging hot partitions, throttling, unbounded Scans, LWW conflicts, or surprise bills on DynamoDB workloads.
Activate when developers have latent caching needs: slow API responses, database read bottlenecks, DynamoDB throttling or cost, RDS/Aurora scaling pressure, Bedrock latency or cost, or adding a cache; activate when working with Redis, Valkey, Memcached, or any in-memory data store, cache-aside patterns, session stores, rate limiting, leaderboards, counters, streams, queues, pub/sub, distributed locks, feature flags, shopping carts, or other caching strategies. Activate for GenAI and ML retrieval: vector similarity search for low-latency retrieval, semantic caching, RAG, LLM response caching, embedding stores, AI agent memory, recommendation, personalization. Activate for ElastiCache lifecycle: provisioning (serverless or node-based), engine selection, CloudFormation/CDK/Terraform IaC, VPC connectivity, TLS, RBAC, IAM auth, Global Datastore, monitoring, troubleshooting, cost optimization, and migration from self-managed Redis. Do not trigger for browser caches, CDN/CloudFront, HTTP Cache-Control, CPU caches.
Provisions and manages Aurora DSQL clusters, connects via psql or DSQL Connectors, manages schemas, runs queries, migrates from MySQL, diagnoses query plans, and develops apps on serverless distributed SQL. Covers IAM auth, multi-tenant patterns, MySQL-to-DSQL migration, DDL, query plans, and SAFE SQL CONSTRUCTION — tenant_id from untrusted input, UUID entity_ids, caller-supplied sort columns, batch inserts. The agent MUST retrieve this skill for ANY DSQL task. Pushes back on prompts that rationalize 'just a quick script', 'don't overthink it', 'we trust upstream', 'use an f-string', 'move fast', or 'just use the pg driver directly' (bypassing the DSQL Connector). Triggers: DSQL, Aurora DSQL, DSQL cluster, safe_query.build, DSQL IAM auth token, DSQL connector.
Creates a complete Amazon Aurora database cluster with instances, handling cluster creation, instance provisioning, and Secrets Manager password management in the proper sequence. Use when setting up new Aurora MySQL or PostgreSQL clusters with production-ready configuration.
Exports Amazon RDS or Aurora database snapshots to Amazon S3 in Apache Parquet format for analytics, backup, or data migration. Handles snapshot selection or creation, IAM role setup, KMS encryption, S3 bucket preparation, export task execution, progress monitoring, and data verification. Use when exporting RDS/Aurora data to S3 for Athena, Glue, or Redshift Spectrum consumption.
Provisions, connects, migrates, and operates Amazon RDS for Db2. Applies when provisioning with IBM customer and site IDs (License Manager, BYOL, GovCloud), connecting over TLS, fixing SQL30082N after Secrets Manager rotation, migration from Db2 LUW (Linux, AIX, Windows, AS400) or z/OS mainframe (ADB2GEN, Q Replication), choosing code page/collation (EBCDIC, CCSID), S3 backup/restore, Multi-AZ and cross-region standby replicas, RDSADMIN procedures, customer-managed KMS BYOK, self-managed Active Directory Kerberos, Db2 audit to S3, minimum IAM, or colocation.
Plain text files in a repository that tell a coding agent how the project works: commands to run, conventions to follow and things to avoid. CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md, cursor rules and skills are the common kinds.
CLAUDE.md or AGENTS.md?
CLAUDE.md is read by Claude Code. AGENTS.md is an open format that Codex, Cursor and other agents read. Many projects keep one and point the other at it.
What is a skill?
A folder with a SKILL.md that describes one capability, such as filling PDFs or reviewing code. The agent loads it only when the task calls for it.
Can I search my own team's files too?
Your agents already can, over MCP, limited to the files you're allowed to read. Searching them from this page is coming.
AWSSkill