Engineering AWSServerlessCloudFormation

AWS Solution Architect

Design AWS architectures using serverless patterns and IaC templates.

A production-grade architecture skill that helps you design, deploy, and optimize AWS infrastructure. It knows serverless patterns (Lambda + API Gateway + DynamoDB), container architectures (ECS Fargate + Aurora), cost optimization strategies, and generates real CloudFormation/CDK/Terraform templates. Ships with 3 Python tools for architecture design, serverless stack generation, and cost analysis — all stdlib-only, zero dependencies.

$skillfish add ~skills/aws-solution-architect

Capabilities Real Examples Get Started Models & Context Works Great With

What This Skill Can Do

Concrete capabilities you get when you install this skill.

Design serverless, container, and three-tier architectures from requirements

Generate production-ready CloudFormation, CDK, or Terraform templates

Analyze and optimize AWS costs with right-sizing recommendations

Configure VPCs, IAM policies, Cognito auth, and security groups

Plan CI/CD pipelines with CodePipeline or GitHub Actions

Set up CloudWatch monitoring, alarms, and X-Ray tracing

Real Conversations

See how the AWS Solution Architect skill responds to actual requests. These are representative examples of what your AI agent will produce.

You

I'm building a mobile app for a small fitness startup. We expect about 1,000 users in the first 3 months. I need a backend with user auth, a REST API, and a database. Budget is under $100/month. What's the best AWS setup?

Agent

Here's a serverless MVP architecture that'll cost ~$20-40/month at your scale:

Architecture: Serverless Web Pattern

CloudFront → S3 (static assets)
            → API Gateway → Lambda (Node.js/Python)
                              → DynamoDB (pay-per-request)
            → Cognito (user auth — free tier covers 50k MAUs)

Why this pattern:

$0 idle cost — Lambda only charges per request, DynamoDB pay-per-request charges per read/write
Auto-scales to zero — no EC2 instances running when nobody is using the app
Cognito free tier covers your 1,000 users (50k MAU free)
No ops burden — no servers to patch, no capacity planning

Estimated monthly cost at 1,000 users:

Service	Estimate
Lambda	$1-3 (1M requests free/month)
API Gateway	$3-5
DynamoDB	$5-10
Cognito	$0 (free tier)
S3 + CloudFront	$2-5
Total	$11-23/month

I'll generate the CloudFormation template for you. Want me to include a CI/CD pipeline with GitHub Actions?

You

Generate CloudFormation for a multi-tenant SaaS platform. We need auto-scaling, a relational database, Redis caching, and HTTPS. About 50k users.

Agent

I'll generate a production three-tier architecture:

Architecture: Containerized Three-Tier

Route 53 → CloudFront → ALB (HTTPS/ACM)
                          → ECS Fargate (auto-scaling 2-8 tasks)
                             → Aurora Serverless v2 (auto-scales 0.5-8 ACU)
                             → ElastiCache Redis (cache.t3.medium)
                          → S3 (user uploads, static assets)

Generating CloudFormation template...

AWSTemplateFormatVersion: '2010-09-09'
Description: Multi-tenant SaaS Platform

Resources:
  VPC:
    Type: AWS::EC2::VPC
    Properties:
      CidrBlock: 10.0.0.0/16
      EnableDnsHostnames: true

  # ... (private/public subnets, NAT, IGW)

  ALB:
    Type: AWS::ElasticLoadBalancingV2::LoadBalancer
    Properties:
      Scheme: internet-facing
      Type: application
      SecurityGroups: [!Ref ALBSecurityGroup]

  FargateService:
    Type: AWS::ECS::Service
    Properties:
      LaunchType: FARGATE
      DesiredCount: 2
      # Auto-scaling policy: scale on CPU > 70%

  AuroraCluster:
    Type: AWS::RDS::DBCluster
    Properties:
      Engine: aurora-postgresql
      ServerlessV2ScalingConfiguration:
        MinCapacity: 0.5
        MaxCapacity: 8

Full template is 280 lines. Includes VPC, subnets, security groups, IAM roles (least-privilege), CloudWatch alarms, and auto-scaling policies.

Estimated cost: $350-800/month depending on traffic. Aurora Serverless scales to near-zero during off-hours.

Shall I add a CI/CD pipeline (CodePipeline + CodeBuild) and WAF for DDoS protection?

Get Started

How to install and use this skill in your preferred environment.

Skills are designed for AI coding agents (Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf) and IDE-based workflows where the agent can read files, run scripts, and act on your codebase. Web-based AI can use the knowledge and frameworks, but won't have tool access.

Models & Context

Which AI models and context windows work best with this skill.

Recommended Models

Works best with Claude Opus/Sonnet 4, GPT-4o, or Gemini 2.5 Pro — models with strong code generation and infrastructure knowledge. Smaller models (Haiku, GPT-4o-mini) can handle simple architectures but may struggle with complex multi-service designs.

Context Window

The SKILL.md is ~8KB. With references (~15KB total) loaded, fits comfortably in 32K context. For complex multi-service architectures, 100K+ context is recommended to keep the full conversation history.

Pro tips for best results

1

Be specific

Include numbers — users, budget, RPS — so the skill can size the architecture.

2

Share constraints

Compliance needs, team size, and existing stack all improve the output.

3

Iterate

Start with a high-level design, then ask follow-ups for IaC, cost analysis, or security review.

4

Combine skills

Pair with companion skills below for end-to-end coverage.

Works Great With

These skills complement AWS Solution Architect for end-to-end coverage. Install them together for better results.

Senior DevOps

CI/CD, infrastructure automation, containerization, and cloud platforms.

DevOpsCI/CD

CI/CD Pipeline Builder

Analyze stack and generate GitHub Actions or GitLab CI configs.

CI/CDGitHub Actions

Observability Designer

SLO design, alert optimization, and dashboard generation.

ObservabilitySLO

Env Secrets Manager

.env management, leak detection, and rotation workflows.

SecretsSecurity

Senior Backend

REST APIs, database optimization, authentication, and microservices.

BackendAPIs

Senior Security

Threat modeling, vulnerability analysis, secure architecture, and pentesting.

SecurityOWASP

$ skillfish add johnefemer/skillfish --all # install all 169 skills at once

Ready to try AWS Solution Architect?

Install the skill and start getting expert-level guidance in your workflow — any agent, any IDE.