AWS Specialist

Purpose

Design and implement scalable, cost-effective, and secure AWS architectures. This skill covers Lambda, S3, DynamoDB, ECS/Fargate, API Gateway, IAM, CDK, CloudFormation, and serverless-first design patterns.

Key Patterns

CDK Stack: Serverless API

import * as cdk from "aws-cdk-lib";
import * as lambda from "aws-cdk-lib/aws-lambda";
import * as apigateway from "aws-cdk-lib/aws-apigateway";
import * as dynamodb from "aws-cdk-lib/aws-dynamodb";
import { NodejsFunction } from "aws-cdk-lib/aws-lambda-nodejs";
import { Construct } from "constructs";

export class ApiStack extends cdk.Stack {
  constructor(scope: Construct, id: string, props?: cdk.StackProps) {
    super(scope, id, props);

    // DynamoDB table
    const table = new dynamodb.Table(this, "ItemsTable", {
      tableName: `${id}-items`,
      partitionKey: { name: "pk", type: dynamodb.AttributeType.STRING },
      sortKey: { name: "sk", type: dynamodb.AttributeType.STRING },
      billingMode: dynamodb.BillingMode.PAY_PER_REQUEST,
      pointInTimeRecovery: true,
      removalPolicy: cdk.RemovalPolicy.RETAIN,
      timeToLiveAttribute: "ttl",
    });

    table.addGlobalSecondaryIndex({
      indexName: "GSI1",
      partitionKey: { name: "gsi1pk", type: dynamodb.AttributeType.STRING },
      sortKey: { name: "gsi1sk", type: dynamodb.AttributeType.STRING },
      projectionType: dynamodb.ProjectionType.ALL,
    });

    // Lambda function
    const handler = new NodejsFunction(this, "ApiHandler", {
      entry: "lambda/api/index.ts",
      handler: "handler",
      runtime: lambda.Runtime.NODEJS_20_X,
      architecture: lambda.Architecture.ARM_64,
      memorySize: 256,
      timeout: cdk.Duration.seconds(30),
      environment: {
        TABLE_NAME: table.tableName,
        NODE_OPTIONS: "--enable-source-maps",
      },
      bundling: {
        minify: true,
        sourceMap: true,
        treeshaking: true,
      },
      tracing: lambda.Tracing.ACTIVE,
    });

    table.grantReadWriteData(handler);

    // API Gateway
    const api = new apigateway.RestApi(this, "Api", {
      restApiName: `${id}-api`,
      deployOptions: {
        stageName: "v1",
        throttlingRateLimit: 1000,
        throttlingBurstLimit: 500,
      },
      defaultCorsPreflightOptions: {
        allowOrigins: apigateway.Cors.ALL_ORIGINS,
        allowMethods: apigateway.Cors.ALL_METHODS,
      },
    });

    const items = api.root.addResource("items");
    items.addMethod("GET", new apigateway.LambdaIntegration(handler));
    items.addMethod("POST", new apigateway.LambdaIntegration(handler));

    const item = items.addResource("{id}");
    item.addMethod("GET", new apigateway.LambdaIntegration(handler));
    item.addMethod("PUT", new apigateway.LambdaIntegration(handler));
    item.addMethod("DELETE", new apigateway.LambdaIntegration(handler));

    new cdk.CfnOutput(this, "ApiUrl", { value: api.url });
  }
}

DynamoDB Single-Table Design

// Key schema for single-table design
interface DynamoItem {
  pk: string;    // Partition key
  sk: string;    // Sort key
  gsi1pk?: string;
  gsi1sk?: string;
  type: string;
  ttl?: number;
  [key: string]: unknown;
}

// User: pk=USER#<id>, sk=PROFILE
// Order: pk=USER#<id>, sk=ORDER#<orderId>
// Product: pk=PRODUCT#<id>, sk=METADATA
// GSI1: gsi1pk=ORDER#<status>, gsi1sk=<createdAt>

import { DynamoDBClient } from "@aws-sdk/client-dynamodb";
import { DynamoDBDocumentClient, QueryCommand, PutCommand } from "@aws-sdk/lib-dynamodb";

const client = DynamoDBDocumentClient.from(new DynamoDBClient({}));

async function getUserWithOrders(userId: string) {
  const result = await client.send(new QueryCommand({
    TableName: process.env.TABLE_NAME,
    KeyConditionExpression: "pk = :pk AND sk BETWEEN :profile AND :orders",
    ExpressionAttributeValues: {
      ":pk": `USER#${userId}`,
      ":profile": "ORDER#",
      ":orders": "ORDER#~",
    },
  }));
  return result.Items;
}

Lambda Handler Pattern

import { APIGatewayProxyHandlerV2 } from "aws-lambda";

// Cold start optimization: initialize outside handler
const db = DynamoDBDocumentClient.from(new DynamoDBClient({}));

export const handler: APIGatewayProxyHandlerV2 = async (event) => {
  try {
    const { httpMethod, pathParameters, body } = event;

    switch (httpMethod) {
      case "GET":
        return await getItem(pathParameters?.id);
      case "POST":
        return await createItem(JSON.parse(body || "{}"));
      default:
        return { statusCode: 405, body: "Method Not Allowed" };
    }
  } catch (error) {
    console.error("Lambda error:", error);
    return {
      statusCode: 500,
      body: JSON.stringify({ error: "Internal Server Error" }),
    };
  }
};

IAM Least Privilege Policy

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "dynamodb:GetItem",
        "dynamodb:PutItem",
        "dynamodb:Query",
        "dynamodb:UpdateItem",
        "dynamodb:DeleteItem"
      ],
      "Resource": [
        "arn:aws:dynamodb:us-east-1:123456789012:table/my-table",
        "arn:aws:dynamodb:us-east-1:123456789012:table/my-table/index/*"
      ]
    },
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "s3:GetObject",
        "s3:PutObject"
      ],
      "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::my-bucket/uploads/*"
    }
  ]
}

Best Practices

Lambda

Use ARM64 architecture (cheaper, often faster)
Set memory based on profiling (more memory = more CPU)
Initialize clients outside the handler (reuse across invocations)
Enable X-Ray tracing for observability
Use Powertools for structured logging, tracing, and metrics
Bundle with esbuild for smaller packages and faster cold starts

DynamoDB

Use single-table design for related entities
Design access patterns FIRST, then the table schema
Use PAY_PER_REQUEST for unpredictable workloads
Enable point-in-time recovery on all tables
Use TTL for automatic cleanup of temporary data
Use batch operations for bulk reads/writes

S3

Enable versioning on important buckets
Use lifecycle rules to transition to cheaper tiers
Enable server-side encryption (SSE-S3 or SSE-KMS)
Use presigned URLs for direct client uploads
Block public access by default

Cost Optimization

Use Graviton (ARM) for Lambda, ECS, EC2
Use Savings Plans for steady-state workloads
Enable S3 Intelligent-Tiering for unpredictable access
Use DynamoDB on-demand for spiky workloads
Set up AWS Budgets alerts

Common Pitfalls

Pitfall	Fix
Overly broad IAM policies	Use least privilege; specify resource ARNs
Lambda cold starts	Use provisioned concurrency for latency-sensitive paths
DynamoDB hot partitions	Distribute keys evenly; avoid sequential IDs
S3 public buckets	Block public access at account level
Missing CloudWatch alarms	Set alarms on errors, latency, throttling
Hardcoded region/account	Use `Aws.REGION` and `Aws.ACCOUNT_ID` in CDK

Examples

S3 Presigned Upload URL

import { S3Client, PutObjectCommand } from "@aws-sdk/client-s3";
import { getSignedUrl } from "@aws-sdk/s3-request-presigner";

const s3 = new S3Client({});

async function getUploadUrl(key: string, contentType: string) {
  const command = new PutObjectCommand({
    Bucket: process.env.UPLOAD_BUCKET,
    Key: key,
    ContentType: contentType,
  });

  return getSignedUrl(s3, command, { expiresIn: 3600 });
}

SQS Event Processing

import { SQSHandler } from "aws-lambda";

export const handler: SQSHandler = async (event) => {
  const failedIds: string[] = [];

  for (const record of event.Records) {
    try {
      const body = JSON.parse(record.body);
      await processMessage(body);
    } catch (error) {
      console.error(`Failed to process ${record.messageId}:`, error);
      failedIds.push(record.messageId);
    }
  }

  // Partial batch failure reporting
  if (failedIds.length > 0) {
    return {
      batchItemFailures: failedIds.map((id) => ({ itemIdentifier: id })),
    };
  }
};

aws

SKILL.md.claude/skills/aws/SKILL.md