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Agent setup guide - AWS Lambda
PrerequisitesClaude CodeCodexCursorKiroGitHub CopilotDevin DesktopOpenCodeFor all other agents compatible with agent skillsInstall additional Lambda skills

Agent setup guide

AI coding agents can accelerate serverless development by providing intelligent assistance for application scaffolding, deployment configuration, debugging, and infrastructure-as-code generation. By configuring your agent with the right combination of plugins and skills, you equip it with expertise required to build and manage serverless applications.

Work with your coding agent

For a quick-start reference, you can drop this link directly into your agent's context:

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lambda/latest/dg/samples/aws-lambda-agent-setup.md

Choose the installation method that matches your development environment.

Prerequisites

Ensure the following prerequisites are in place for installing the aws-core plugin:

  • uv installed on your system.

  • (Optional) An AWS account with IAM credentials set up on your local machine. Credentials are required for tools that execute AWS API calls and run scripts, but not for searching documentation or discovering skills. If you do not have credentials configured, see Setting up the AWS MCP Server for detailed instructions.

Claude Code

Install the aws-core plugin, part of the Agent Toolkit for AWS, that bundles the AWS MCP Server configuration and a curated set of agent skills (including the AWS serverless skill).

Install aws-core plugin from Agent Toolkit for AWS

Run the following command to install the plugin:

/plugin marketplace add aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws
/plugin install aws-core@agent-toolkit-for-aws

This installs agent skills including the AWS serverless skill, agent hooks, and the AWS MCP Server configuration in one step.

Codex

Install aws-core plugin from Agent Toolkit for AWS

Run the following command to install the plugin:

codex plugin marketplace add aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws

Then launch Codex and run /plugins to browse and install the aws-core plugin.

Cursor

Install AWS serverless skill

npx skills add https://github.com/aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws --skill aws-serverless --yes --global

Kiro

Install AWS serverless skill in Kiro CLI

npx skills add https://github.com/aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws --skill aws-serverless --yes --global

Install Kiro powers (from Kiro IDE)

Install the following Kiro powers that provide specialized contexts and tools to the Kiro agents on-demand:

GitHub Copilot

Install AWS serverless skill

npx skills add https://github.com/aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws --skill aws-serverless --yes --global

Devin Desktop

Install AWS serverless skill

npx skills add https://github.com/aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws --skill aws-serverless --yes --global

OpenCode

Install AWS serverless skill

npx skills add https://github.com/aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws --skill aws-serverless --yes --global

For all other agents compatible with agent skills

For any other agent that supports the open-source agent skills format, follow these steps:

Install AWS serverless skill

npx skills add https://github.com/aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws --skill aws-serverless --yes --global

Install additional Lambda skills

The Agent Toolkit for AWS includes specialized serverless skills that give your AI agents knowledge of Lambda capabilities. Install these skills using any agent such as Claude Code, Cursor, Kiro CLI, GitHub Copilot, Codex, Devin Desktop, OpenCode or any other agents compatible with open-source agent skills format to enable your agent to help you build, deploy, and manage workloads using Lambda Web Functions, Lambda MicroVMs, Lambda Managed Instances, and Lambda durable functions.

  1. Lambda Web Functions skill – Lambda Web Functions let you run web applications and API backends as HTTP servers, where your Node.js code handles requests directly using frameworks such as Express, Fastify, or Hono, with Lambda providing an HTTPS endpoint, automatic scaling (including to zero), and multi-Region replication.

    npx skills add https://github.com/aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws/tree/main/skills/specialized-skills/serverless-skills/aws-lambda-web-functions --yes --global

  2. Lambda MicroVMs skill – Lambda MicroVMs is a serverless compute primitive that provides VM-level isolation, near-instant launch and resume speeds, and state preservation for executing user or AI-generated code in isolated, stateful execution environments.

    npx skills add https://github.com/aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws/tree/main/skills/specialized-skills/serverless-skills/aws-lambda-microvms --yes --global

  3. Lambda Managed Instances skill – With Lambda Managed Instances, you can run Lambda functions on your Amazon EC2 instances while maintaining Lambda's operational simplicity, giving you access to specialized compute configurations and cost efficiency through Amazon EC2 pricing advantages without managing infrastructure.

    npx skills add https://github.com/aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws/tree/main/skills/specialized-skills/serverless-skills/aws-lambda-managed-instances --yes --global

  4. Lambda durable functions skill – Lambda durable functions enable you to build fault-tolerant, long-running applications that can checkpoint progress, automatically recover from failures, and suspend execution for up to one year when waiting on long-running tasks like human-in-the-loop processes.

    npx skills add https://github.com/aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws/tree/main/skills/specialized-skills/serverless-skills/aws-lambda-durable-functions --yes --global