launching-ec2-instance-with-best-practices
Launches an EC2 instance with secure, cost-efficient defaults including AMI selection, burstable instance sizing, least-privilege IAM roles, hardened security groups, encrypted EBS volumes, and comprehensive tagging. Use when deploying new EC2 instances following AWS best practices for security and cost optimization.
- Installs
- 6.4K
- Last 24h
- +42
- Trending rank
- #3730
- Security
- Pass
Install
Works with every agent the skills CLI supports.
npx skills add https://github.com/aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws --skill launching-ec2-instance-with-best-practices- 01
Install
Run the command in your project. The CLI asks which agents to install for.
- 02
Describe the task
Ask your agent for something this skill covers. It loads launching-ec2-instance-with-best-practices automatically when relevant.
- 03
Review the result
The agent follows the SKILL.md steps, scripts and references bundled with the skill.
Security audits
Independent scans of the skill's instructions and bundled files.
SKILL.md
The instructions your agent reads when the skill is triggered.
Launching EC2 Instances with Best Practices
Overview
Domain expertise for launching EC2 instances with sensible defaults optimized for security, cost-efficiency, and operational best practices. Covers AMI selection, instance type recommendation, network configuration, IAM role creation, security group hardening, storage configuration, tagging strategy, and post-launch verification.
Launch an EC2 instance
To launch a fully configured EC2 instance with best-practice defaults, follow the procedure exactly. See EC2 instance launch procedure.
The procedure handles:
- Intelligent defaults based on workload type and environment
- Network validation (VPC, subnet, public/private placement)
- AMI selection with architecture compatibility checks
- Least-privilege IAM roles for required AWS service access
- Hardened security groups with minimal port exposure
- Encrypted gp3 storage with environment-appropriate retention
- Comprehensive tagging for cost tracking and organization
- Post-launch verification and connection instructions
Troubleshooting
Insufficient instance capacity
Try a different availability zone or instance type (e.g., t3a instead of t3). See the full troubleshooting guide in the launch procedure.
Instance immediately terminates
Check console output with aws ec2 get-console-output. Verify EBS volume size is sufficient and AMI is compatible with the instance type.
Cannot connect via SSH
Verify the security group allows SSH from your IP, key file permissions are 400, and the instance is running. Consider AWS Systems Manager Session Manager as an alternative.
FAQ
What does the launching-ec2-instance-with-best-practices skill do?
Launches an EC2 instance with secure, cost-efficient defaults including AMI selection, burstable instance sizing, least-privilege IAM roles, hardened security groups, encrypted EBS volumes, and comprehensive tagging. Use when deploying new EC2 instances following AWS best practices for security and cost optimization.
How do I install launching-ec2-instance-with-best-practices?
Run npx skills add https://github.com/aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws --skill launching-ec2-instance-with-best-practices in your project. The skills CLI detects the agents you use and copies the skill into the right folder. For Claude Code you can also place the skill folder at ~/.claude/skills/launching-ec2-instance-with-best-practices/ (personal) or .claude/skills/launching-ec2-instance-with-best-practices/ (project).
Which AI agents can use launching-ec2-instance-with-best-practices?
Any agent that supports the open Agent Skills format (a folder with a SKILL.md file), including Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, Windsurf, Cline, OpenCode and more.
Is launching-ec2-instance-with-best-practices safe to install?
Security partners have reviewed it: Gen Agent Trust Hub passed; Socket passed; Snyk passed. As with any skill, read the SKILL.md and bundled scripts before installing.
Who maintains launching-ec2-instance-with-best-practices?
It is published by aws in aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws, and it is an official skill from the maker of the technology it covers. It has 6,371 recorded installs.
More from aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws
aws-iam
aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws
Provides verified corrections for IAM behaviors that AI agents frequently get wrong — policy evaluation edge cases, trust policy gotchas, STS session limits, Organizations quirks, and SAML/MFA specifics. Also provides structured workflows for IAM role management and baseline policy generation from application source code or a Terraform plan JSON. Covers condition operator safety (ForAnyValue/ForAllValues with Null checks), bucket policy deny patterns (VPC endpoint restrictions, org paths), confused deputy protection, and service role creation for AWS services (Glue, CloudTrail, Lambda, ECS, etc.) with aws:SourceAccount/aws:SourceArn trust conditions. Applies when creating IAM roles, writing IAM or bucket policies, generating policies from application source code or a Terraform plan JSON, working with STS, Organizations, or condition operators, or any task needing a service or execution role. Does not cover non-IAM authorization like Cognito user-pool policies or app-level RBAC.
aws-serverless
aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws
Routes serverless requests to a compute form factor and the skill that owns it. Applies first to Lambda, API Gateway, EventBridge, Step Functions and event-driven work while the compute, orchestration or integration choice is open — API backends, webhooks, jobs, cron, queue/stream consumers, durable workflows, event routing, Step Functions vs Durable Functions, and Pipes vs native event source mappings for queues and streams. Decides Event Functions on-demand vs Managed Instances, Web Functions, MicroVMs, EventBridge rules/Scheduler/Pipes/bus, HTTP vs REST API. Owns shared Lambda references (cold starts, SnapStart, concurrency, event sources, function URLs, throttling, troubleshooting). Defers to the specialized skill once a request commits to one form factor or service, or describes its defining feature, even unnamed (durable checkpointing and automatic step retries, Firecracker sandbox, managed instances, Node.js server). Not for EC2, ECS/EKS/Fargate or Amplify hosting.
aws-observability
aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws
Builds, configures, debugs, and optimizes AWS observability - operator-symptom questions and detecting Omni vs classic CloudWatch. CloudWatch on an already-reporting service: Log Insights, metric/composite/anomaly alarms, custom metrics/EMF, dashboards, X-Ray/ADOT tracing, canaries, CloudTrail, Dynamic Instrumentation (live breakpoints/snapshots), the Application Signals service map, and fleet health views. CloudWatch Omni on an existing Space: SQL over logs and traces, PromQL over metrics, Omni dashboards, Omni alerts, context graph for root cause, programmatic/IaC access (API/SDK/CLI/CloudFormation), driving Omni from a coding agent or skills, and evaluating AI agent quality from traces - on-demand and online scoring of live traffic, readback, custom evaluators. For first-time setup - creating an Omni Space, granting access, ingestion, or ADOT instrumentation for Application Signals (ServiceEvents, CI/CD metadata) or Omni - use setting-up-cloudwatch-observability. Not for app logging
aws-cdk
aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws
Authors, deploys, and troubleshoots AWS infrastructure using CDK with TypeScript or Python. Covers best practices, stack architecture, and construct patterns. Applies when writing CDK constructs, bootstrapping environments, running cdk deploy/synth/diff, fixing CDK or CloudFormation errors, planning stack structure, importing existing resources, resolving drift, or refactoring stacks without resource replacement.
aws-containers
aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws
Builds and deploys containerized workloads on Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS), Elastic Container Service (ECS), Fargate, and ECR (Elastic Container Registry). Covers general EKS knowledge, Karpenter, AWS Load Balancer Controller and leveraging various open source Kubernetes projects with EKS. Covers general ECS knowledge, task definitions, Fargate services, ECS Exec, ECS Express Mode and ECS Managed Instances. Covers general Elastic Beanstalk knowledge, Elastic Beanstalk configuration and platforms supported by Elastic Beanstalk. Covers general ECR knowledge, ECR repository setup and lifecycle policies. Includes recommending, enabling, and reading Amazon ECS Action Logs to troubleshoot control-plane failures (deployment rollback/circuit-breaker, task placement, scaling, task replacement). Applies when deploying, debugging, or optimizing containers on AWS. Should be used instead of relying on internal knowledge for these services.
aws-billing-and-cost-management
aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws
Analyze AWS costs, find savings, manage budgets, evaluate Savings Plans and Reserved Instances, right-size EC2/Lambda/RDS/EBS with Compute Optimizer, look up service pricing, query CUR with Athena, detect cost anomalies, scope costs to billing views, and monitor Free Tier usage. Triggers on: AWS bill, cost analysis, reduce spend, savings plan, reserved instance, right-size, budget alert, cost optimization, pricing, free tier, cost anomaly, CUR, cost audit, billing view, billing view ARN.
Popular code quality & workflow skills
grill-me
mattpocock/skills
A relentless interview to sharpen a plan or design.
improve-codebase-architecture
mattpocock/skills
Scan a codebase for deepening opportunities, present them as a visual HTML report, then grill through whichever one you pick.
handoff
mattpocock/skills
Compact the current conversation into a handoff document for another agent to pick up.
domain-modeling
mattpocock/skills
Build and sharpen a project's domain model. Use when discussing codebase terminology, writing or editing a GLOSSARY.md, or recording or editing an ADR.
codebase-design
mattpocock/skills
Shared vocabulary for designing deep modules. Use when the user wants to design or improve a module's interface, find deepening opportunities, decide where a seam goes, make code more testable or AI-navigable, or when another skill needs the deep-module vocabulary.
diagnosing-bugs
mattpocock/skills
Diagnosis loop for hard bugs and performance regressions. Use when the user says "diagnose"/"debug this", or reports something broken/throwing/failing/slow.