This Claude skill provides comprehensive expertise in AWS development using CDK best practices. It empowers developers to architect, deploy, and manage scalable cloud environments through serverless patterns, event-driven architectures, and robust security configurations, ensuring high-performance and cost-effective infrastructure management.

When should I use aws-skills?

aws-skills is useful in the following scenarios: • Architecting and deploying serverless REST APIs using AWS CDK, Lambda, and API Gateway for high scalability. • Implementing DynamoDB single-table design patterns to optimize database performance and reduce operational complexity. • Building decoupled, event-driven microservices using Amazon EventBridge and SQS for reliable asynchronous processing. • Optimizing cloud expenditure by leveraging ARM-based Lambda architectures and automated S3 lifecycle management policies. • Ensuring infrastructure security through least-privilege IAM policies and integrated AWS Secrets Manager configurations. • Setting up comprehensive monitoring and observability using CloudWatch Alarms and X-Ray tracing for rapid debugging.

name	aws-skills
description	AWS development with CDK best practices, serverless patterns, cost optimization, and event-driven architecture. Use when deploying to AWS, writing Lambda functions, configuring API Gateway, working with DynamoDB, S3, or any AWS service.

AWS Development Skills

AWS CDK Best Practices

Project Structure

infrastructure/
├── bin/
│   └── app.ts              # CDK app entry point
├── lib/
│   ├── stacks/
│   │   ├── api-stack.ts
│   │   ├── database-stack.ts
│   │   └── storage-stack.ts
│   ├── constructs/
│   │   ├── lambda-function.ts
│   │   └── api-gateway.ts
│   └── config/
│       └── environment.ts
├── lambda/
│   └── handlers/
├── cdk.json
└── package.json

Stack Definition

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';
import { Construct } from 'constructs';

interface ApiStackProps extends cdk.StackProps {
  environment: string;
  domainName?: string;
}

export class ApiStack extends cdk.Stack {
  public readonly api: apigateway.RestApi;

  constructor(scope: Construct, id: string, props: ApiStackProps) {
    super(scope, id, props);

    const handler = new lambda.Function(this, 'ApiHandler', {
      runtime: lambda.Runtime.NODEJS_18_X,
      handler: 'index.handler',
      code: lambda.Code.fromAsset('lambda/handlers'),
      environment: { NODE_ENV: props.environment },
      memorySize: 256,
      timeout: cdk.Duration.seconds(30),
    });

    this.api = new apigateway.RestApi(this, 'Api', {
      restApiName: `${props.environment}-api`,
      deployOptions: {
        stageName: props.environment,
        throttlingRateLimit: 1000,
        throttlingBurstLimit: 500,
      },
    });

    const integration = new apigateway.LambdaIntegration(handler);
    this.api.root.addMethod('GET', integration);
  }
}

Serverless Patterns

Lambda Best Practices

import { APIGatewayProxyHandler } from 'aws-lambda';

// Initialize outside handler for connection reuse
const dynamodb = new DynamoDB.DocumentClient();

export const handler: APIGatewayProxyHandler = async (event) => {
  try {
    const body = JSON.parse(event.body || '{}');
    const result = await processRequest(body);
    return response(200, result);
  } catch (error) {
    console.error('Error:', error);
    return response(500, { error: 'Internal server error' });
  }
};

function response(statusCode: number, body: any) {
  return {
    statusCode,
    headers: {
      'Content-Type': 'application/json',
      'Access-Control-Allow-Origin': '*',
    },
    body: JSON.stringify(body),
  };
}

DynamoDB Single-Table Design

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,
});

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

Event-Driven with EventBridge

const rule = new events.Rule(this, 'OrderCreatedRule', {
  eventPattern: {
    source: ['orders'],
    detailType: ['OrderCreated'],
  },
});

rule.addTarget(new targets.LambdaFunction(processOrderHandler));
rule.addTarget(new targets.SqsQueue(notificationQueue));

SQS + Lambda Pattern

const dlq = new sqs.Queue(this, 'DeadLetterQueue');

const queue = new sqs.Queue(this, 'ProcessingQueue', {
  visibilityTimeout: cdk.Duration.seconds(300),
  deadLetterQueue: { queue: dlq, maxReceiveCount: 3 },
});

processor.addEventSource(new SqsEventSource(queue, {
  batchSize: 10,
  maxBatchingWindow: cdk.Duration.seconds(5),
}));

Cost Optimization

Lambda Optimization

const handler = new lambda.Function(this, 'Handler', {
  memorySize: 256,
  timeout: cdk.Duration.seconds(10),
  architecture: lambda.Architecture.ARM_64, // Cost savings
});

S3 Lifecycle Rules

const bucket = new s3.Bucket(this, 'Bucket', {
  lifecycleRules: [{
    transitions: [
      { storageClass: s3.StorageClass.INFREQUENT_ACCESS, transitionAfter: cdk.Duration.days(30) },
      { storageClass: s3.StorageClass.GLACIER, transitionAfter: cdk.Duration.days(90) },
    ],
    expiration: cdk.Duration.days(365),
  }],
});

Security Best Practices

IAM Least Privilege

// Grant methods (preferred)
table.grantReadWriteData(handler);
bucket.grantRead(handler);

Secrets Management

const secret = secretsmanager.Secret.fromSecretNameV2(this, 'DbSecret', 'prod/db/credentials');
secret.grantRead(handler);

Monitoring

CloudWatch Alarms

new cloudwatch.Alarm(this, 'LambdaErrors', {
  metric: handler.metricErrors(),
  threshold: 1,
  evaluationPeriods: 1,
});

X-Ray Tracing

const handler = new lambda.Function(this, 'Handler', {
  tracing: lambda.Tracing.ACTIVE,
});

aws-skills

When & Why to Use This Skill

Use Cases