# AWS Compute

Provisions, scales, and operates Amazon EC2 virtual-machine workloads: instance-type...

- Repository: https://github.com/aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws (3366 stars)
- Category: Design
- 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 aws-compute -g -a claude-code -y`
Codex: `npx skills add aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws --skill aws-compute -g -a codex -y`
Cursor: `npx skills add aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws --skill aws-compute -g -a cursor -y`
Gemini CLI: `npx skills add aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws --skill aws-compute -g -a gemini-cli -y`
Claude Code plugin marketplace: `/plugin marketplace add aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws`

## Description

Provisions, scales, and operates Amazon EC2 virtual-machine workloads: instance-type selection (Graviton/Arm64, burstable T credits, GPU, instance store vs EBS), launch templates, Auto Scaling groups (scaling policies, instance refresh, mixed instances, Spot, warm pools, lifecycle hooks), IMDSv2, placement groups, Elastic IPs, AMI lifecycle, and Systems Manager fleet operations (Session Manager, Run Command, Patch Manager). Applies to EC2 instance and fleet questions, InsufficientInstanceCapacity, CPU-credit/surplus charges, IMDSv2 401s, instances stuck in Pending:Wait, ASG not replacing unhealthy instances, status-check failures, SSH refused/timed out, or instances missing as SSM managed nodes. For a single secure instance launch, the launching-ec2-instance-with-best-practices skill is more appropriate; for instance profiles, see setting-up-ec2-instance-profiles; for Image Builder, see amazon-ec2-image-builder. Does NOT cover Lambda, ECS/Fargate, EKS, VPC/ALB/NLB design, or IAM policy authoring.

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

# Amazon EC2 Compute

Best experience with the AWS MCP server; also works with the AWS CLI alone, no hard dependency on either.

## Critical Warnings

**Launch configurations are deprecated** and do not support current EC2 instance types; new accounts cannot create them. Use launch templates for every new Auto Scaling group. See [auto-scaling.md](references/auto-scaling.md).

**ASGs ignore ELB health checks by default**: An Auto Scaling group only uses EC2 status checks unless you set `--health-check-type ELB`. Without it, instances failing the load balancer's health check stay in service forever. See [auto-scaling.md](references/auto-scaling.md).

**IMDSv2 hop limit breaks containers**: the default `HttpPutResponseHopLimit` of 1 makes the IMDSv2 token PUT response fail to reach a containerized process (the extra hop exceeds the response TTL), so the token request times out. Set `HttpPutResponseHopLimit=2` for bridge/awsvpc container workloads. (If IMDSv2 is *required*, a subsequent tokenless GET returns `401`; if optional, it silently falls back to IMDSv1.) See [provisioning.md](references/provisioning.md).

**T3/T3a/T4g default to unlimited mode**: Unlike T2 (standard), these burst without throttling but bill surplus CPU credits when 24h-average CPU exceeds baseline, a silent cost leak. See [instance-selection.md](references/instance-selection.md).

**Instance store is ephemeral**: Data on instance store volumes is lost on stop, hibernate, terminate, instance-type change, and host failure, it survives only a reboot. Put anything durable on EBS/EFS/S3. See [instance-selection.md](references/instance-selection.md).

## Which do you need?

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