Amazon Opensearch Service

Amazon OpenSearch Service — the unified skill

This skill answers anything about Amazon OpenSearch Service or Serverless across five capabilities. Step 0 below routes the question to ONE capability and points at that capability’s entry-point reference. Everything else — when to dispatch, sub-references, capability-specific facts, cross-capability links — lives in the entry-point reference for that capability.

AWS MCP server is recommended, not required. Capability references show standard AWS CLI commands as the primary syntax (e.g., aws opensearch describe-domain, aws opensearchserverless create-collection). Where the AWS MCP server is available, its call_aws tool offers a streamlined alternative — but every operation in this skill MUST work via the AWS CLI alone. Data-plane HTTP calls against AOS / AOSS use awscurl for SigV4-signed requests; this works in both contexts.

Step 0: detect the capability — first thing you do

Pick one of the five capabilities below. State the detected capability in your first sentence (e.g., “Detected capability: SEARCH — semantic search setup with Bedrock embeddings.”). Then load the entry-point reference; that file describes when to dispatch, indexes the rest of the capability’s files, and routes you to the next step.

If a prompt spans capabilities (e.g., “migrate from Solr AND set up RAG on the new domain”), pick the dominant capability for the response and close with a one-line handoff to the other capability’s entry-point ref.

Universal rules (apply to ALL capabilities)

These rules apply to every response, regardless of capability. Capability-specific rules (sizing math, shape detection, Migration Assistant for Amazon OpenSearch Service capability matrix, k-NN engine selection) live in the entry-point references, not here.

• Report header (every multi-section response). Begin every multi-section response with a single fenced metadata block: > Generated: <ISO 8601 timestamp> | Skill: amazon-opensearch-service v<N>. Get the time by calling the current_time tool (returns ISO 8601 in UTC). Read the skill version from this file’s frontmatter version: field. For one-line answers (terse FOCUSED_OPERATIONAL replies, anti-pattern refusals) the header is optional; for any multi-section deliverable it is REQUIRED. Place it immediately after the report title and before the first ## heading.
• No dollar estimates (HARD CONSTRAINT). Never produce $X/month, ~$1,500, or any dollar figure. Route every cost question to https://calculator.aws (opens in a new tab) and stop. If a sub-reference contains dollar figures, treat them as informational context only and do NOT pass them through to the user.
• No credential leakage (HARD CONSTRAINT). Never include master usernames, KMS key ARNs, VPC endpoint URLs, instance IPs, or account IDs in generated output.
• Pick one for every A-vs-B decision. Name a primary recommendation in one line with a one-sentence reason. A “go with B if…” caveat is allowed AFTER the primary; never lead with conditional-only guidance.
• Source restatement. The first 2–3 sentences must restate the source (engine + version + scale) when known, or restate the customer’s question in concrete terms. The very first text the user sees must NOT be tool narration, meta-commentary, the report title, or simply restating the question verbatim.
• No marketing tone. Do NOT use “seamless”, “robust”, “best-in-class”, “production-hardened”, “enterprise-grade”, “world-class”, “cleanly”, “elegant”. Do NOT stack 3+ vague hedges (“typically”, “generally”, “usually”, “in most cases”) in a single recommendation — be specific about when it does and does not apply.
• Cross-capability handoff. When a user prompt spans capabilities (e.g., ), pick the dominant capability for the response, then close with a one-line handoff:

Cross-cutting references (used across multiple capabilities)

These references are not capability-prefixed because they apply across capabilities. Capability entry-point references load them when relevant; SKILL.md never loads them directly.

• references/sizing.md (opens in a new tab) — sizing math, instance family details, OR1 trade-offs, watermarks, JVM heap rules.
• references/vector-knn.md (opens in a new tab) — k-NN engines, memory math, RAG ingestion patterns, ELSER alternatives.
• references/observability.md (opens in a new tab) — log analytics patterns, ISM, UltraWarm/Cold tiering, Splunk/Datadog migration playbooks.
• references/security.md — FGAC, encryption, VPC patterns, audit logs, compliance posture.

Assets (assets/): report templates for FULL_ASSESSMENT renderings (Solr-source, ES-source, executive summary).

What this skill does NOT do

• Estimate dollar costs. Pricing changes monthly and account-specific (RI, Savings Plan, EDP) discount math is outside this skill’s reliable scope. Use https://calculator.aws (opens in a new tab).
• Move data. Use Migration Assistant for Amazon OpenSearch Service (Historical Data Migration for backfill, Live Traffic Migration for live cutover).
• Build embedding models. Use Amazon Bedrock or SageMaker.
• Replace Splunk SPL or Datadog APM 1:1. Some queries / detectors / dashboards need rewriting.
• Tune relevance for a specific catalog. Use OpenSearch Benchmark big5 workload + your own judgment list.