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Getting Started

Disclaimer

This project provides sample code for educational and demonstration purposes only. It is not intended for direct production use without proper review, testing, and validation. Always test generated infrastructure artifacts (Terraform, Helm charts, kubectl commands) in non-production environments first. Use at your own risk — the authors are not responsible for any issues, damages, or losses that may result from using this code in production.

APEX skills are plain folders of markdown + scripts. Any agent harness that supports the Agent Skills standard can load them.

Prerequisites: Node.js 18+ and git must be installed.

npx apex-skills

The installer detects which tools you have (Claude Code, Kiro CLI, or both), clones the repo to ~/.apex-skills/, and symlinks all skills + steering workflows into the right locations.

npx apex-skills --update # Pull latest skills
npx apex-skills --version v1.2.0 # Pin to a specific release
npx apex-skills --branch feat/new-eks # Install from a branch
npx apex-skills --help # See all options

Manual Install

If you prefer not to use npx, clone the repo and copy skills directly.

Claude Code

git clone https://github.com/aws-samples/sample-apex-skills.git
cd sample-apex-skills

mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills ~/.claude/commands
cp -r skills/* ~/.claude/skills/
ln -sfn "$(pwd)/steering/commands/apex" ~/.claude/commands/apex
ln -sfn "$(pwd)/steering" ~/.claude/apex-steering

Restart Claude Code; skills become available via /<skill-name> and steering via /apex:*.

Kiro CLI

git clone https://github.com/aws-samples/sample-apex-skills.git
cd sample-apex-skills

mkdir -p ~/.kiro/skills ~/.kiro/steering
cp -r skills/* ~/.kiro/skills/
cp steering/workflows/*.md ~/.kiro/steering/

Other Agent Harnesses

Skills follow the Agent Skills standard. Clone and point your tool at skills/{skill-name}/ — each contains a SKILL.md and optional references/ directory.

AWS DevOps Agent

A subset of skills are ported for fully autonomous execution on the AWS DevOps Agent. These live in the devops-agent/ directory and run without interactive prompts.

git clone https://github.com/aws-samples/sample-apex-skills.git
cd sample-apex-skills

# Automated setup (creates Agent Space, uploads skills, configures EKS access)
./devops-agent/setup.sh --space-name <your-space> --cluster-name <your-cluster> --region <region>

# Or upload a single skill manually
cd devops-agent/eks-cost-intelligence
zip -r /tmp/eks-cost-intelligence.zip . -x '*.zip' -x './references/porting-notes.md'
# Upload in the Agent Space Operator Web App: Knowledge > Skills > Add skill > Upload skill

See devops-agent/README.md for full setup instructions and constraints.

Verify

In your harness, run:

/eks-recon

You should see the EKS reconnaissance skill prompt for cluster context.

We provide a rules/AGENTS.md file with recommended rules for agents using APEX skills — skill discovery, upstream source verification, and safety guardrails.

Add the contents to your project's existing agent configuration:

ToolWhere to add
Claude CodeAppend to your project's CLAUDE.md
CursorAdd to .cursor/rules/apex.mdc
CodexAppend to your project's AGENTS.md
KiroAdd to .kiro/steering/apex-rules.md
Gemini CLIAppend to your project's GEMINI.md

See rules/AGENTS.md for the full content.

Next steps

  • Browse the Skills catalog.
  • Try a Steering workflow for a phased engagement.