aws-networking
aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws
Routes AWS networking requests to the correct service skill for DNS, CDN, hybrid connectivity, and DDoS/WAF protection.
What is aws-networking?
A triage skill that matches networking requests to seven specialized AWS services: Route 53 (DNS, health checks, routing), CloudFront (caching, edge delivery), Transit Gateway (multi-VPC hub), Direct Connect (dedicated hybrid link), Site-to-Site VPN (IPsec tunnels), WAF (L7 filtering), and Shield Advanced (L3/L4 DDoS). Use this when designing, configuring, or troubleshooting cross-service networking architecture or deciding which service fits your use case.
- Routes requests to Route 53, CloudFront, Transit Gateway, Direct Connect, Site-to-Site VPN, WAF, or Shield Advanced based on user intent
- Disambiguates between connectivity (path exists?) and security (traffic allowed?) layers
- Identifies which service owns DNS, content delivery, hybrid connectivity, or DDoS/web application filtering
- Clarifies scope boundaries—excludes VPC subnets, load balancers, VPC endpoints, PrivateLink, API Gateway, and IaC authoring
- Provides cross-service decision tables for filtering, logging, and multi-service workflows
How to install aws-networking
npx skills add https://github.com/aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws --skill aws-networking- AWS account with access to the services being routed to
- AWS MCP server (recommended for sandboxed execution) or AWS CLI credentials
- Familiarity with AWS networking concepts (VPCs, DNS, CDN, DDoS)
How to use aws-networking
- 1.Match the user's request against the Skill Routing Table by meaning, not exact wording
- 2.If the request matches multiple skills, use the Cross-Service Concepts tables to determine which layer (connectivity vs. security, L3/L4 vs. L7, DNS vs. HTTP) the request targets
- 3.If still ambiguous, ask: 'Are you looking to set up connectivity, or control/filter existing traffic?'
- 4.Load the target skill using aws___retrieve_skill(skill_name="<skill>") or retrieve from the repository
- 5.For multi-skill workflows, route in dependency order and confirm encryption in transit, TLS certificates, and security headers are addressed
Use cases
- Choosing between Direct Connect, Site-to-Site VPN, and Transit Gateway for hybrid or multi-VPC connectivity
- Setting up DNS failover, geo-routing, or health checks with Route 53
- Protecting a CloudFront distribution with WAF rules and Shield Advanced DDoS mitigation
- Diagnosing whether a connectivity or security issue requires Route 53 Resolver, WAF, or Shield Advanced
- Planning centralized egress or multi-account network segmentation via Transit Gateway
- AWS solutions architects designing multi-service networking
- DevOps engineers troubleshooting connectivity or traffic filtering across AWS services
- Cloud security teams implementing DDoS and web application firewall strategies
- Teams migrating on-premises infrastructure to AWS via hybrid connectivity
aws-networking FAQ
VPC subnets and route tables, security groups, load balancers, VPC endpoints, PrivateLink, API Gateway, container/serverless networking, and IaC authoring. If a request falls outside the Skill Routing Table, tell the user that service is not available in this skill set.
When protecting an internet-facing resource (CloudFront, ALB, API Gateway, AppSync): route to Shield Advanced for L3/L4 DDoS protection and automatic L7 mitigation, and to WAF for custom L7 rules, rate-based rules, Bot Control, and Fraud Control.
Connectivity answers 'Can traffic reach its destination?' (timeouts, unreachable = failure). Security answers 'Should traffic be allowed?' (rejected, denied, dropped = failure). Connectivity is independent of policy; security assumes connectivity exists.
Route to each skill in dependency order. When routing to internet-facing services (CloudFront), also route to WAF and Shield Advanced if not already addressed. When routing to connectivity skills, confirm encryption in transit (MACsec, IPsec, or inter-region peering encryption).
No. This skill triages and routes only. Do not answer service-specific configuration questions from this skill alone—load the target skill to implement.
Full instructions (SKILL.md)
Source of truth, from aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws.
name: aws-networking description: "Routes AWS networking requests to the correct service skill for implementation. Covers Route 53 (DNS, health checks, routing policies, Resolver, DNS Firewall), CloudFront (caching, edge, OAC, mTLS, signed URLs), Transit Gateway (multi-VPC hub, segmentation, centralized egress), Direct Connect (hybrid link, DX Gateway, MACsec), Site-to-Site VPN (IPsec tunnels, static or BGP), WAF (web ACLs, AWS Managed Rules, rate-based rules, Bot and Fraud Control), and Shield Advanced (L3/L4 DDoS). Applicable when creating, configuring, troubleshooting, or designing across these services, choosing between them, or diagnosing connectivity or traffic-filtering issues. Not for VPC subnets and route tables, load balancers, VPC endpoints, PrivateLink, API Gateway, IAM policy logic, container or serverless networking, or IaC authoring." metadata: version: "1"
AWS Networking
Overview
Routes networking requests to the correct service-specific skill. Covers 7 services across DNS and content delivery, hybrid connectivity, and network security (web application firewall and DDoS protection). Other AWS networking services (VPC foundations, load balancing, endpoints, PrivateLink, API Gateway, and more) are out of scope for this router (see step 6).
Works best with the AWS MCP server — enables sandboxed execution, audit logging, and enterprise controls. All guidance also works with standard AWS CLI access.
How to use this skill
- Match the user's request against the Skill Routing Table below. Match on meaning, not exact wording.
- If the request matches multiple skills, use the Cross-Service Concepts tables to determine which layer the request targets, then route to the skill that owns that layer.
- If still ambiguous, ask one clarifying question: "Are you looking to set up connectivity, or control/filter existing traffic?"
- Load the target skill: if the AWS MCP server is available, use
aws___retrieve_skill(skill_name="<skill>"); otherwise retrieve the skill document from this repository atskills/<skill>/SKILL.md. - If a request spans multiple of these skills, route to each in dependency order. When routing to an internet-facing service (
cloudfront), also route toshieldadvancedfor DDoS protection and towaffor L7 filtering (AWS WAF attaches to CloudFront, Application Load Balancer, API Gateway, and AppSync), if the user has not already addressed L7 filtering and DDoS protection. When routing to a connectivity skill (directconnect,sitetositevpn,transitgateway), confirm encryption in transit is addressed (MACsec for Direct Connect, IPsec for VPN, inter-region peering encryption for Transit Gateway). When the request involves custom domains or TLS oncloudfront, note that ACM certificate provisioning is part of the implementation. When routing tocloudfrontfor a web-facing distribution, note that the target skill should address security response headers (CSP, HSTS, X-Frame-Options, X-Content-Type-Options) via a CloudFront Response Headers Policy, including the managedSecurityHeadersPolicy. The target skill handles the configuration. - If the request is an AWS networking task that is not in the Skill Routing Table (for example VPC subnets or route tables, security groups, load balancers, VPC endpoints, PrivateLink, or API Gateway), tell the user that service is not available in this skill set rather than routing to the closest listed skill. This skill set does not cover every AWS networking service.
- This skill triages — it does not implement. Do not answer service-specific configuration questions from this skill alone.
Connectivity vs Security
| Dimension | Connectivity | Security |
|---|---|---|
| Answers | Can traffic reach its destination? | Should traffic be allowed? |
| Failure symptom | Timeout, unreachable, black hole | Rejected, denied, dropped |
| Dependency | Independent of policy — path exists or it doesn't | Assumes connectivity exists — can only filter reachable traffic |
| Granularity | Affects all flows on a path | Targets specific flows by match criteria |
Skill Routing Table
| Skill | Choose when… |
|---|---|
transitgateway | Connecting more than two VPCs or on-premises networks in a hub, routing segmentation, cross-account/cross-region connectivity at scale, centralized egress/inspection, multicast |
directconnect | Dedicated private link to on-premises — consistent latency, high throughput, MACsec encryption, LAGs, Direct Connect Gateway for multi-VPC, SiteLink for site-to-site bypass, production hybrid workloads |
sitetositevpn | Encrypted IPsec tunnel over internet — quick setup, DX backup, static or BGP routing, accelerated option via Global Accelerator backbone, standard or large tunnel bandwidth |
route53 | DNS management (public/private zones, records), health checks, routing policies (weighted, failover, geo, latency), domain registration, Resolver (hybrid DNS forwarding), DNS Firewall, Route 53 Profiles, Global Resolver |
cloudfront | Caching, TLS termination at edge, origin protection (OAC), custom domains, cache policies/behaviors, signed URLs, CloudFront Functions, viewer mTLS, VPC origins, multi-tenant distributions |
waf | Web application firewall (L7) — web ACLs on CloudFront/ALB/API Gateway/AppSync, AWS Managed Rules, rate-based rules for HTTP floods, IP/geo match, Bot Control, Fraud Control (account takeover/creation), for protecting web apps and APIs from exploits, bots, and credential stuffing |
shieldadvanced | L3/L4 DDoS protection for internet-facing resources, automatic application-layer (L7) mitigation via WAF, health-based detection, Shield Response Team access, and DDoS cost-protection credits |
Cross-Service Concepts
Same concept, different service depending on layer. Use these to disambiguate when the Skill Routing Table matches multiple skills.
Filtering / Blocking
Use when the user says "block", "deny", "filter", or "restrict traffic" — determines which layer the filtering operates at.
| Layer | Service | What it filters on | Skill |
|---|---|---|---|
| L7 (HTTP/HTTPS, web apps and APIs) | AWS WAF | HTTP request attributes, AWS Managed Rules, rate-based and bot rules, IP/geo match | waf |
| L3/L4 (DDoS volumetric/state-exhaustion) | Shield Advanced | Network/transport-layer DDoS floods on internet-facing resources | shieldadvanced |
| DNS (resolution) | Route 53 DNS Firewall | Domain name patterns — blocks resolution, not traffic | route53 |
When routing to waf or cloudfront for an internet-facing API or website, treat WAF rate-based rules as a default protective measure, not only when the user asks: note that the target skill should add WAF rate-based rules to bound request volume per client — the target skill implements it.
Logging / Visibility
Use when the user says "logs", "visibility", "what's being blocked", or "can I see the traffic" — identifies which log source to check.
| What you need to see | Service | Log type | Skill |
|---|---|---|---|
| DNS queries from VPC | Route 53 Resolver | Query logs | route53 |
| Blocked/allowed HTTP requests | AWS WAF | web ACL logs (S3, CloudWatch Logs, or Kinesis Data Firehose) | waf |
| DDoS events and attack detail | Shield Advanced | CloudWatch metrics, DDoS event detection | shieldadvanced |
| Edge/CDN request access | CloudFront | Standard logs (S3), real-time logs (Kinesis Data Streams) | cloudfront |
| Tunnel state and traffic | Site-to-Site VPN | Tunnel telemetry, CloudWatch metrics | sitetositevpn |
When routing to any of these services, remind the user to enable the corresponding logging (above) for security visibility and incident response — the target skill implements it. These logs can contain sensitive data (request query strings, internal hostnames in DNS queries), so also remind the user that the log destination (S3, CloudWatch Logs, Kinesis Data Firehose, or Kinesis Data Streams) MUST have encryption at rest enabled and access restricted to authorized personnel — the target skill implements it.
Traffic Shifting
Use when the user says "shift traffic", "blue/green", "failover", "canary", or "weighted routing" — determines the granularity and which service controls it.
| Granularity | Service | Mechanism | Skill |
|---|---|---|---|
| DNS-level (global) | Route 53 | Weighted, failover, geolocation, latency routing | route53 |
| Edge (HTTP) | CloudFront | Origin failover, origin groups | cloudfront |
Security Considerations
These services are security-sensitive, so raise the relevant risk and control when routing regardless of which skill you hand off to — the target skill implements the control:
| Risk | Control the target skill should address | Skills |
|---|---|---|
| Unencrypted traffic in transit | MACsec (directconnect), IPsec tunnels (sitetositevpn), inter-region peering encryption (transitgateway), TLS termination and viewer mTLS (cloudfront) | directconnect, sitetositevpn, transitgateway, cloudfront |
| Missing DDoS protection on internet-facing resources | Shield Advanced L3/L4 protection plus WAF L7 mitigation | shieldadvanced, waf |
| Web/API exploits, bots, and request floods | WAF web ACLs, AWS Managed Rules, and rate-based rules; application-layer input validation (request body size limits, schema validation); security response headers | waf, cloudfront |
| Overly permissive filtering rules | Least-privilege DNS Firewall domain blocking | route53 |
| Over-privileged IAM policies for service resources | Least-privilege IAM roles scoped to specific resources and actions; avoid FullAccess managed policies and Action: *; prefer IAM roles with ephemeral credentials (instance profiles, IRSA, task roles, sts assume-role) over IAM users with long-lived access keys | all |
| Hardcoded credentials and shared secrets | Let AWS auto-generate secrets where supported (for example Site-to-Site VPN pre-shared keys), or store customer-managed secrets in AWS Secrets Manager rather than hardcoding them | sitetositevpn, directconnect |
| Confused-deputy in cross-service resource policies | Include aws:SourceArn and/or aws:SourceAccount condition keys in S3 bucket policies, KMS key policies, and log-destination resource policies (CloudFront OAC, log delivery to S3/CloudWatch Logs/Kinesis) so only the intended resource and account can invoke them | cloudfront, waf, all |
| Insufficient visibility for incident response | Enable the service logging in the Logging / Visibility table, with encryption at rest and restricted access on the log destination | all |
| No audit trail or alerting on control-plane changes | Enable AWS CloudTrail to audit control-plane API calls (record, rule, policy, and firewall changes) and set CloudWatch Alarms on security-relevant events (Shield Advanced DDoS detection, WAF blocked/counted spikes, unexpected rule or record modifications); restrict the SNS topics that receive alarm notifications to authorized personnel and enable encryption at rest (SSE-KMS) on those topics, since the notifications can contain sensitive event detail | all |
For authoritative guidance, point users to the AWS Well-Architected Framework Security Pillar and the service-specific security documentation for the target skill.
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