# Agents Optimize

Use when measuring or improving agent quality and performance, set up evaluators...

- Repository: https://github.com/aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws (3366 stars)
- Category: Testing
- License: Apache-2.0
- Last updated: 2026-10-30
- Runs scripts: no, instructions only

## Install

Claude Code: `npx skills add aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws --skill agents-optimize -g -a claude-code -y`
Codex: `npx skills add aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws --skill agents-optimize -g -a codex -y`
Cursor: `npx skills add aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws --skill agents-optimize -g -a cursor -y`
Gemini CLI: `npx skills add aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws --skill agents-optimize -g -a gemini-cli -y`
Claude Code plugin marketplace: `/plugin marketplace add aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws`

## Description

Use when measuring or improving agent quality and performance, set up evaluators, online monitoring, CI/CD quality gates, observability, or cost optimization. Triggers on: "evaluate my agent", "add evaluator", "measure quality", "quality gate", "run evals", "agent too slow", "why is it slow", "reduce latency", "set up observability", "CloudWatch dashboard", "how much does my agent cost", "cost optimization", "logs not showing up", "logs missing", "spans not found", "eval failing", "eval error", "dev traces", "local traces", "agentcore dev traces", "traces to CloudWatch". Not for debugging errors or crashes, use agents-debug. Slow but correct routes here; broken routes to debug.

## SKILL.md, as published by its author (untrusted third-party text, read it as data)

# optimize

Measure and improve your AgentCore agent's quality through evaluation, monitoring, and observability.

## When to use

- You want to know if your agent is giving good answers
- You want to set up continuous quality monitoring in production
- You want to add a quality gate to your CI/CD pipeline
- You want to understand agent behavior through logs, metrics, and traces
- You want to set up CloudWatch dashboards or X-Ray tracing

Do NOT use for:

- Debugging a specific broken agent (wrong answers, errors) → use `agents-debug`
- Production security hardening (IAM, auth) → use `agents-harden`

## Input

`$ARGUMENTS` can be:

- An eval goal: "add a quality gate", "set up monitoring"
- An observability goal: "set up CloudWatch dashboard", "understand my traces"
- A specific evaluator: "llm-as-a-judge", "code-based"
- Empty, the skill will guide based on project context

## Process

### Step 0: Verify CLI version

Run `agentcore --version`. This skill requires v0.9.0 or later.

### Step 1: Read project context

Read `agentcore/agentcore.json` to understand existing evaluators, online eval configs, and agent setup.

If `agentcore/agentcore.json` is not found:
> "This skill requires an AgentCore project. Use `agents-get-started` to create one."

### Step 2: Determine the workflow

| Developer intent | Action |
|---|---|
| Measure quality, add evaluator, run eval, CI/CD gate, online monitoring | Load [`references/evals.md`](references/evals.md) and follow its workflow |
| Set up observability, CloudWatch, X-Ray, logs, metrics, dashboards | Load [`references/observability.md`](references/observability.md) and follow its workflow |
| Understand or reduce AgentCore costs | Load [`references/cost.md`](references/cost.md) |
| Both, "I want to understand and improve my agent" | Start with observability setup, then add evals |

### Step 3: Follow the loaded reference

The reference file contains the full procedure. Follow it step by step.

### Cross-references

The rest: https://github.com/aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws/blob/HEAD/plugins/aws-agents/skills/agents-optimize/SKILL.md