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aws-serverless

An agent skill by aws, from aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws. Tags: api-gateway, aws, debugging, deployment, lambda, serverless.

What it does

Builds, deploys, manages, debugs, configures, and optimizes serverless applications on AWS using Lambda, API Gateway, Step Functions, EventBridge, and SAM/CDK. Covers cold starts, CORS debugging, event source mappings, troubleshooting, concurrency, SnapStart, Powertools, function URLs, EventBridge Scheduler, Lambda layers, and production readiness. Triggers on mentions of Lambda, API Gateway, Step Functions, SAM templates, CDK serverless stacks, DynamoDB stream triggers, SQS event sources, cold starts, timeouts, 502/504 errors, throttling, concurrency, CORS, Powertools, or any event-driven architecture on AWS, even without the word "serverless." Does not apply to EC2, ECS/Fargate containers, or Amplify hosting.

Install

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

npx skills add aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws --skill aws-serverless

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/plugins/aws-core/skills/aws-serverless ~/.claude/skills/aws-serverless

Safety box score

Grade C, moderate risk: 39 of 100 risk points, rated 2026-10-15. 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 a router and reference pack for AWS serverless work: Lambda, API Gateway, EventBridge, Step Functions, and related deployment/debugging workflows. The main risk is broad cloud-side blast radius, because it includes deploy/hot-swap procedures and AWS CLI commands that can change live resources, plus a Lambda kill-switch command.

Category levels, from 0 (none) to 3 (high)
CategoryLevelWhy
Code & shell execution2 (moderate)It includes runnable shell and AWS CLI/SAM/CDK commands such as `sam sync --watch`, `cdk deploy --hotswap`, `sam build --use-container --no-cached`, and `npm install --save-dev esbuild`, so an agent following it will execute code locally.
Network access2 (moderate)The skill routinely sends requests to AWS control-plane APIs (`aws lambda ...`, `aws service-quotas ...`) and deploys resources over the network; it is explicitly designed to work with AWS CLI/MCP access.
Filesystem reach1 (low)Most local effects stay inside the working directory, but it does include `rm -rf .aws-sam/cache`, which deletes a project cache directory.
Secrets & credentials1 (low)It does not ask for passwords or read credential stores, but it will operate using the user's configured AWS credentials and repeatedly warns not to pass secrets or PII through workflows.
Privilege & persistence1 (low)There is no sudo or OS-service management, but it can change AWS-side permissions and other privileged cloud settings, for example with `aws lambda add-permission`.
Instruction hijack surface0 (none)The guidance is opinionated, but it does not instruct the agent to ignore higher-priority instructions, hide actions, or follow fetched remote content.
Irreversible actions3 (high)It includes deployment and live-mutation workflows (`sam sync`, `cdk deploy --hotswap`) and an emergency Lambda shutoff (`--reserved-concurrent-executions 0`), so it can publish or alter production resources.
Transparency0 (none)All packaged files are plain markdown and a readable Python template; there are no binaries, minified blobs, or runtime-decoded code.

Before installing

Rated 2026-10-15 by an automated review of 12 files from the skill's repository.

Source

Repository
aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws (all skills from this repository)
Path
plugins/aws-core/skills/aws-serverless/SKILL.md
Branch
main
Collection
aws-core
Updated
2026-09-19