creating-secrets-using-best-practices

Creates and automates custom image builds with EC2 Image Builder - Linux, Windows, and macOS AMIs, and container images to ECR. Covers the build IAM role, Amazon-managed and custom components, image recipes, infrastructure and distribution configuration (launch templates, SSM parameters, other Regions), one-off builds, recurring scheduled pipelines for golden AMI automation and OS patching, custom image workflows, and diagnosing failed builds. Applies when creating, automating, or scheduling AMI or container image builds with Image Builder, or when debugging a failed build. Not for launching instances from existing AMIs, AMI lifecycle/retirement, or general EC2 fleet management.

Designs, deploys, reviews, evaluates, audits, and troubleshoots video streaming workflows across AWS media services (MediaConnect, MediaLive, MediaConvert, MediaPackage v2, MediaTailor, CloudFront). Includes per-service validation rules, cross-service workflow patterns for live streaming, linear channels, VOD pipelines, and live-to-VOD, service-specific troubleshooting, best practices assessment, cost optimization, encoder settings, DRM, SCTE-35 ad insertion, epoch locking, and CDN cache configuration.

Connects AI agents to remote Windows desktop applications on Amazon WorkSpaces Applications (AppStream 2.0) through the managed Agent Access MCP server, and guides reliable desktop automation. Covers connecting an agent to the MCP endpoint (SigV4, streaming URL, and Active Directory SAML/Domain Join), BLOCKING vs POLLING connect modes, the computer-use tools (screenshot, click, type, key, scroll), screenshot-budget and action-batching discipline, MCP tool forwarding (forwarded___ tools), session lifecycle and expire-on-delete, and troubleshooting connection errors. Use when building or debugging an agent that drives a remote Windows desktop or GUI application via WorkSpaces Applications / AppStream — including "dcv session not ready", "client_disconnected", 400 signing-region, POLLING/connection_status, SAML assertion, or forwarded tool questions. Not for Amazon WorkSpaces Personal/Core virtual desktops or general AppStream fleet administration unrelated to agent access.

Configures EC2 instances to securely call AWS services by creating and attaching IAM roles via instance profiles, eliminating hardcoded credentials. Use when an EC2 instance needs permissions to access AWS services like S3, DynamoDB, SQS, or CloudWatch through temporary credentials.

Launches an EC2 instance with secure, cost-efficient defaults including AMI selection, burstable instance sizing, least-privilege IAM roles, hardened security groups, encrypted EBS volumes, and comprehensive tagging. Use when deploying new EC2 instances following AWS best practices for security and cost optimization.

Provides connectivity, authentication, and troubleshooting guidance for Amazon RDS for SQL Server. Applicable when users ask about SSMS times out connecting from EC2, Cannot generate SSPI context with Windows auth, connect RDS SQL Server from Lambda with pymssql, auth_scheme shows NTLM instead of KERBEROS on ECS Fargate, SSM tunnel to RDS SQL Server from laptop, port 1433 security group, TrustServerCertificate=True for localhost tunnels, SPN MSSQLSvc, AWS Managed Microsoft AD, CNAME not RDS endpoint for Kerberos, tds_version='7.4', encryption='require', port-as-string for pymssql, Secrets Manager credential caching in Lambda, error 18456 login failed. Covers Python (pymssql, pyodbc), .NET (Microsoft.Data.SqlClient), Java (JDBC mssql-jdbc), Node.js (tedious), IAM auth via RDS Proxy, and VPC/ECS/EKS/Lambda deployment.

Diagnoses and resolves Amazon RDS for Oracle connectivity, authentication, networking, and driver troubleshooting. Applicable to any RDS-for-Oracle question including connecting a Python Lambda to RDS Oracle in a VPC with pooling and cold-start optimization, EKS pods to RDS Oracle via the Secrets Manager CSI driver with IRSA and SecretProviderClass, ORA-12170 cross-VPC timeouts from EC2, DPI-1047 cannot-locate-64-bit-Oracle-Client errors, and Oracle Connection Manager (CMAN) on EC2 as a proxy with HA across two AZs. Covers python-oracledb thin vs thick mode, init_oracle_client, RDS Proxy does NOT support RDS Oracle, port 1521, VPC peering, Transit Gateway, Kerberos with AWS Managed Microsoft AD, SSL/TLS/NNE, SSM port forwarding, EC2/ECS Fargate/EKS/Lambda, SQL Developer/DBeaver/Toad/SQLcl, and Secrets Manager.

Advises on Amazon RDS open-source engines (MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL) for instance creation, upgrade planning, commitment pricing, proxy evaluation, and Blue/Green deployments. Handles any RDS MySQL, MariaDB, or PostgreSQL question, including create a production-ready RDS MySQL instance, provision an RDS PostgreSQL database, run the RDS upgrade advisor for my RDS MySQL instance, what are my upgrade options, upgrade RDS MariaDB from 10.6 to the latest version, should I buy reserved instances or a savings plan for db.r7g.2xlarge RDS MySQL, change a VARCHAR to INT column on RDS MySQL 8.0 with Blue/Green, and does RDS Proxy help when PgBouncer already runs in transaction mode. Covers instance creation with production best practices, describe-db-instances and describe-db-engine-versions upgrade-target workflow, live prechecks via SSM or direct connection, RI versus DSP commitment pricing, RDS Proxy versus PgBouncer, and Blue/Green lifecycle with binlog replay compatibility.

Rigor Run skill for README-first deep learning repo reproduction. Use when the task is specifically to capture or normalize evidence from the selected smoke test or documented inference or evaluation command and write standardized `repro_outputs/` files, including patch notes when repository files changed. Do not use for training execution, initial repo intake, generic environment setup, paper lookup, target selection, hidden scientific-meaning changes, or end-to-end orchestration by itself.

When the user wants to audit, review, or diagnose SEO issues on their site. Also use when the user mentions "SEO audit," "technical SEO," "why am I not ranking," "SEO issues," "on-page SEO," "meta tags review," "SEO health check," "my traffic dropped," "lost rankings," "not showing up in Google," "site isn't ranking," "Google update hit me," "page speed," "core web vitals," "crawl errors," "indexing issues," "stuck on page 2," "striking distance keywords," "title tag rewrite," "low CTR," "local SEO," "Google Business Profile," or "map pack." Use this even if the user just says something vague like "my SEO is bad" or "help with SEO" — start with an audit. For building pages at scale to target keywords, see programmatic-seo. For adding structured data, see schema. For AI search optimization, see ai-seo.

Audits Firebase (Firestore, Cloud Storage) security rules for vulnerabilities, privilege escalation, role bypasses, create vs update inconsistencies, resource exhaustion, type safety, size limits, and hasOnly ownership checks. Use when auditing/reviewing rules, running red-team rule assessments, or scoring against auditor checklists. Don't use for Firebase CLI (login, deploy), Auth, Crashlytics, Remote Config, or database queries.

Audit, diagnose, or optimize website loading and interaction performance, Core Web Vitals, and Lighthouse performance scores.

Audit a landing page, sales page or checkout page for conversion leaks and return a fix list ordered by expected revenue impact. Use when asked to review, critique or improve a landing page, sales page, opt-in page, product page or checkout flow, when conversion rate is low, when paid traffic is not converting, or when someone asks "why isn't this page converting" or wants a CRO / landing page review.

Audit a browser fingerprint for internal contradictions with the liarjs CLI - canvas, WebGL, WebGL2, WebGPU, audio, 220 fonts, WebRTC and timezone probes, scored against the TLS/HTTP/ASN view of the same request. Use when asked to run a browser fingerprint test, see what a fingerprint looks like, check canvas or WebGL fingerprint stability, compare a spoofed profile against a real browser, or find out whether a browser profile is self-consistent.

Security guidance and vulnerability review for codebases, APIs, services, CLI tools, libraries, and daemons. Use for security questions, focused reviews, vulnerability research, security audits, or pen tests. Run the complete workflow only for explicit codebase audit or pen-test requests, full/comprehensive/end-to-end reviews, or requested report artifacts.

When the user wants help with pricing decisions, packaging, or monetization strategy. Also use when the user mentions 'pricing,' 'pricing tiers,' 'freemium,' 'free trial,' 'packaging,' 'price increase,' 'value metric,' 'Van Westendorp,' 'willingness to pay,' 'monetization,' 'how much should I charge,' 'my pricing is wrong,' 'pricing page,' 'annual vs monthly,' 'per seat pricing,' 'should I offer a free plan,' 'pricing page teardown,' 'pricing page audit,' 'is my pricing page AI-readable,' or 'can AI read my pricing.' Use this whenever someone is figuring out what to charge, how to structure their plans, or wants to audit a pricing page (for humans and for the AI agents that shortlist tools). For in-app upgrade screens, see paywalls. For offer construction (bonuses, guarantees, value framing, naming) on services/courses/coaching/high-ticket B2B, see offers.