AWS Learnings (Find Lessons)
Overview
This skill finds hard-won lessons from real AWS deployments covering API Gateway, Lambda, IAM, S3, CloudFront, CloudFormation, Secrets Management, EC2, EventBridge, SQS, and more. Use it to avoid common pitfalls when architecting or modifying AWS infrastructure.
The library is published in llms.txt format: a single index file links to one self-contained Markdown file per lesson. Fetch only the lessons relevant to the AWS services in the current task — don't pull the whole library.
This skill is read-only. To contribute a new lesson, use the aws-learnings-add skill instead.
Instructions
Before creating or modifying AWS infrastructure (CloudFormation, CDK, SAM, Terraform, or manual configuration):
Fetch the index (it's small — just links + one-line summaries):
URL: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jbdamask/aws-learnings-library/main/llms.txt
Use WebFetch or curl to retrieve it.
Identify which AWS services are involved in the current task (API Gateway, Lambda, IAM, etc.).
Scan the matching sections of the index. Each entry is a link followed by a one-line summary — enough to tell whether the lesson applies.
Fetch only the relevant lesson files. Each link in the index is the fully-qualified raw URL of a single lesson, e.g.
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jbdamask/aws-learnings-library/main/lessons/apigw-001.md.
Fetch them with WebFetch or curl.
Apply the lessons proactively — check the current code/templates against the known gotchas before making changes. If a lesson is relevant, cite it (by id, e.g. apigw-001) when explaining decisions to the user.
When to Consult
- Writing or modifying CloudFormation templates
- Configuring API Gateway resources, methods, or CORS
- Setting up Lambda functions (handler paths, modules, permissions, warm-container state)
- Managing IAM roles across stacks, or Lambda-invoked CloudFormation
- Configuring S3 buckets with CloudFront distributions, or presigned-URL uploads
- Working with Secrets Manager or SSM Parameter Store
- Setting up EC2 instances with UserData scripts, or spot instances
- Wiring EventBridge rules or SQS + Lambda async job processing
- Any cross-stack CloudFormation references or exports
1---2name: aws-learnings3description: Proactively catch common AWS infrastructure mistakes before they happen. Use when creating or modifying AWS components — CloudFormation, CDK, Lambda, API Gateway, IAM, S3, CloudFront, EC2, EventBridge, SQS, Secrets Manager, or SSM — to find and apply hard-won deployment lessons and avoid known pitfalls. Read-only: fetches lessons, does not add them.4---56# AWS Learnings (Find Lessons)78## Overview910This skill finds hard-won lessons from real AWS deployments covering API Gateway, Lambda, IAM, S3, CloudFront, CloudFormation, Secrets Management, EC2, EventBridge, SQS, and more. Use it to avoid common pitfalls when architecting or modifying AWS infrastructure.1112The library is published in [llms.txt](https://llmstxt.org/) format: a single index file links to one self-contained Markdown file per lesson. **Fetch only the lessons relevant to the AWS services in the current task** — don't pull the whole library.1314This skill is **read-only**. To contribute a new lesson, use the `aws-learnings-add` skill instead.1516## Instructions1718Before creating or modifying AWS infrastructure (CloudFormation, CDK, SAM, Terraform, or manual configuration):19201. **Fetch the index** (it's small — just links + one-line summaries):2122 **URL:** https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jbdamask/aws-learnings-library/main/llms.txt2324 Use `WebFetch` or `curl` to retrieve it.25262. **Identify which AWS services are involved** in the current task (API Gateway, Lambda, IAM, etc.).27283. **Scan the matching sections** of the index. Each entry is a link followed by a one-line summary — enough to tell whether the lesson applies.29304. **Fetch only the relevant lesson files.** Each link in the index is the fully-qualified raw URL of a single lesson, e.g.31 `https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jbdamask/aws-learnings-library/main/lessons/apigw-001.md`.32 Fetch them with `WebFetch` or `curl`.33345. **Apply the lessons proactively** — check the current code/templates against the known gotchas before making changes. If a lesson is relevant, cite it (by id, e.g. `apigw-001`) when explaining decisions to the user.3536## When to Consult3738- Writing or modifying CloudFormation templates39- Configuring API Gateway resources, methods, or CORS40- Setting up Lambda functions (handler paths, modules, permissions, warm-container state)41- Managing IAM roles across stacks, or Lambda-invoked CloudFormation42- Configuring S3 buckets with CloudFront distributions, or presigned-URL uploads43- Working with Secrets Manager or SSM Parameter Store44- Setting up EC2 instances with UserData scripts, or spot instances45- Wiring EventBridge rules or SQS + Lambda async job processing46- Any cross-stack CloudFormation references or exports
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