amazon-elasticache

An agent skill by aws, from aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws. Tags: cache, cloud, database, performance, redis.

What it does

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.

Install

With the skills CLI, which installs into Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and other agents:

npx skills add aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws --skill amazon-elasticache

Or copy the skill folder into Claude Code's skills directory by hand (~/.claude/skills for every project, or .claude/skills inside one):

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws
cp -r agent-toolkit-for-aws/skills/specialized-skills/database-skills/amazon-elasticache ~/.claude/skills/amazon-elasticache

Safety box score

Grade D, elevated risk: 53 of 100 risk points, rated 2026-10-14. The grade rates what the skill and its scripts can reach on the machine of whoever installs it, across eight categories from shell execution to secrets access. How the score works.

This skill is an ElastiCache operations toolkit for AWS: it provisions, connects to, monitors, and migrates managed Redis/Valkey/Memcached caches using AWS CLI/boto3, CloudFormation/CDK, and bundled scripts. The main risks are broad infrastructure mutation/destruction, network access to VPC-private endpoints and tunnels, and handling cache credentials/auth tokens; several large reference/script files were not readable in this review.

Category levels, from 0 (none) to 3 (high)
Category	Level	Why
Code & shell execution	2 (moderate)	It ships runnable automation and command snippets, including `scripts/collect_metrics.sh` and `scripts/find_tunnel_host.py`, and explicitly uses AWS CLI/SDK and `valkey-cli`/`redis-cli`.
Network access	2 (moderate)	It talks to AWS APIs and private cache endpoints, e.g. `boto3.Session(...)` in `scripts/find_tunnel_host.py` and tunnel/cache access in `references/setup/connection-guide.md`.
Filesystem reach	1 (low)	It writes workspace files such as `${PREFIX}_memory_${TIMESTAMP}.txt` in `scripts/collect_metrics.sh` and uses `.elasticache/requirements.json` as shared state in `SKILL.md`.
Secrets & credentials	2 (moderate)	It handles cache passwords and auth tokens, including `REDIS_PASSWORD`/`REDISCLI_AUTH` in `scripts/collect_metrics.sh` and Secrets Manager examples in `references/shared-runtime/ecs.md`.
Privilege & persistence	2 (moderate)	It recommends package installs (`brew install valkey`, `pip install boto3`) and AWS privileges like `iam:CreateServiceLinkedRole`, `ec2:CreateVpcEndpoint`, and `ec2:DeleteVpcEndpoints`.
Instruction hijack surface	0 (none)	I did not find instructions to skip confirmations, follow hidden remote instructions, adopt a misleading persona, or conceal actions.
Irreversible actions	3 (high)	The skill can create, modify, migrate, and delete live AWS infrastructure, including destructive steps like `aws ec2 delete-vpc-endpoints --vpc-endpoint-ids <id1> <id2>` in `references/setup/iac-best-practices.md`.
Transparency	1 (low)	Several important files were not readable in this review (for example `scripts/price_calculator.py`, `scripts/security_audit.py`, and `references/setup/create-secure-cache.md`), so some behavior could not be verified.

Before installing

Read `references/setup/iac-best-practices.md` and confirm you are OK with AWS resource creation/deletion, including VPC endpoint cleanup.
Inspect `scripts/collect_metrics.sh` and `scripts/find_tunnel_host.py`; try them first in a throwaway account or nonproduction VPC.
Decide how credentials will be supplied (`REDIS_PASSWORD`, Secrets Manager, or IAM auth) and verify no production secrets will be exposed to the agent.
Check the IAM role you will give it: it may need ElastiCache, EC2 VPC endpoint, and service-linked-role permissions.

Rated 2026-10-14 by an automated review of 34 files from the skill's repository.

Source

Repository: aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws (all skills from this repository)
Path: skills/specialized-skills/database-skills/amazon-elasticache/SKILL.md
Branch: main
Updated: 2026-09-19

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