Networking And Content Delivery Skills

Skill 89 of 130

Directconnect

Configures AWS Direct Connect: choosing a connection model (dedicated, hosted, or a link aggregation group) and completing the cross connect; creating private, public, and transit…

4 minutes · 983 words · 6 sections

Install

$ npx skills add aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws --skill directconnect

$ npx skills add aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws

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

The first command installs just this skill, by the name in its SKILL.md; the second installs the whole repository.

Domain expertise for configuring AWS Direct Connect, the service that gives a customer a private, consistent network link between their own data center or colocation and AWS instead of routing over the public internet. Covers choosing a connection model and completing the cross connect, creating virtual interfaces and bringing up Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), reaching many VPCs through a Direct Connect gateway, encrypting traffic in transit, making the connection resilient, managing link aggregation groups, SiteLink, and migrating from a virtual private gateway to a transit gateway.

This skill is a router. Each customer task maps to a procedure file under references/. Read the matching reference in full before acting, then follow its constraints and steps. The reference files are self-contained: each carries its own decision tables, constraints, procedure, and troubleshooting.

Execute commands using the AWS MCP server when connected (sandboxed execution, audit logging, observability). Fall back to the AWS CLI otherwise. The Direct Connect console is regional, so pass the customer’s working --region on aws directconnect commands; a Direct Connect gateway is a global resource but is reached through a regional console view.

Which Direct Connect task do you need?

Goal	Reference
Choose dedicated vs hosted vs a link aggregation group, then complete the cross connect	choosing a Direct Connect connection type (opens in a new tab)
Create a private, public, or transit virtual interface and bring up BGP	creating a virtual interface and configuring BGP (opens in a new tab)
Reach many VPCs over one connection through a Direct Connect gateway	connecting many VPCs through a Direct Connect gateway (opens in a new tab)
Encrypt traffic in transit with MACsec or a private IP Site-to-Site VPN	encrypting traffic over Direct Connect (opens in a new tab)
Make the connection survive a failure and tune failover speed	making a Direct Connect connection resilient (opens in a new tab)
Bundle connections into one logical link and manage members	managing link aggregation groups (opens in a new tab)
Connect on-premises sites to each other over the AWS backbone	setting up SiteLink (opens in a new tab)
Move from a virtual private gateway to a transit gateway without dropping traffic	migrating from a virtual private gateway to a transit gateway (opens in a new tab)

Routing notes

Connection model comes first. The choosing-a-connection-type reference is the entry point for a customer with no link yet. It settles dedicated vs hosted vs a link aggregation group, checks location support for the chosen speed, and separates a hosted connection from a hosted virtual interface, a distinction customers confuse constantly. Run it before any cross connect is ordered, since port speed cannot change after the connection is created.
A connection carries no traffic until a virtual interface exists. After the cross connect is live, the creating-a-virtual-interface reference is the required next step. The virtual interface type (private, public, or transit) decides what the connection can reach and is fixed at creation. The jumbo-frame maximum transmission unit (MTU) should be set at creation but, on a private or transit virtual interface, can be changed later with a brief connectivity disruption.
One VPC vs many VPCs. A single VPC in one Region can be reached over a private virtual interface to a virtual private gateway. Reaching many VPCs, crossing accounts, or crossing Regions is the Direct Connect gateway reference, which also owns the cross-account transit gateway proposal-and-acceptance handshake.
Encryption is a separate, deliberate step. Direct Connect is not encrypted in transit by default. The encrypting-traffic reference compares MACsec (Layer 2, over the cross connect) against a private IP Site-to-Site VPN over a transit virtual interface (the recommended IPsec path). Route here whenever the customer mentions regulated data or encryption.
Resiliency model vs failover speed are two different questions. The resiliency reference covers both: the Resiliency Toolkit sets the topology and service level target, while BGP hold-timer tuning and Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) set how fast failover actually converges.
Link aggregation group as a model vs as ongoing management. The connection-type reference introduces the link aggregation group as a model choice at order time. The managing-link-aggregation-groups reference owns ongoing member add/remove and minimum-links behavior, where removing a member can take the whole group down.
Migration is order-dependent. The virtual-private-gateway-to-transit-gateway migration reference exists because doing the cutover steps out of order drops production traffic. Route any “we outgrew the single-VPC model” request here rather than to the plain Direct Connect gateway reference.

Security Considerations

Direct Connect provides a private link into VPC resources, so the security posture differs from the public internet path. Carry these into every task:

Not encrypted by default. Direct Connect does not encrypt traffic in transit. You MUST treat encryption as a separate, deliberate step (MACsec or a private IP Site-to-Site VPN) before regulated or sensitive data crosses the link. See the encrypting-traffic reference.
Physical and colocation security. The link terminates on customer equipment at a Direct Connect location or partner colocation. You SHOULD remind the customer that physical access control and partner trust at that facility are part of the connection’s security boundary.
Monitoring and alerting. You SHOULD recommend CloudWatch alarms on connection state and virtual interface BGP status so connection-state changes and failures trigger alerts rather than relying on manual detection.
Audit logging. You SHOULD confirm CloudTrail is enabled and logging directconnect API calls (connection, virtual interface, and gateway-association changes) so all configuration changes are captured for audit and compliance.
CloudWatch Logs encryption. You SHOULD encrypt CloudWatch Logs log groups that receive Direct Connect-related logs or alarm state data with a KMS key, so sensitive connection metadata is protected at rest.
Least-privilege IAM. You MUST scope IAM permissions for directconnect API actions to the specific actions and resources each principal needs, and prefer ephemeral IAM credentials over long-lived IAM user access keys. You MUST NOT grant directconnect:* on resource * or attach any *FullAccess managed policy; instead scope actions to specific resource ARNs, e.g. arn:aws:directconnect:*:*:dxcon/{connection_id} for a connection, so a compromised principal cannot touch every Direct Connect resource in the account.
Route leaks between VPCs. You SHOULD warn that advertising a supernet that overlaps VPC CIDRs can cause unintended VPC-to-VPC traffic over a shared Direct Connect gateway; mitigate with specific prefixes, separate gateways, or transit gateway blackhole routes.

Additional Resources

About this skill

Trigger

Configures AWS Direct Connect: choosing a connection model (dedicated, hosted, or a link aggregation group) and completing the cross connect; creating private, public, and transit virtual interfaces and bringing up BGP; reaching many VPCs through a Direct Connect gateway including cross-account transit gateway associations; encrypting traffic with MACsec or a private IP Site-to-Site VPN; making the connection resilient and tuning failover; managing link aggregation groups; SiteLink; and migrating from a virtual private gateway to a transit gateway. Use when the user wants a private, consistent network link between a data center and AWS, or operates an existing Direct Connect setup and needs to extend, encrypt, or harden it. Routes to the right per-task procedure in references. Do NOT use for transit gateway route tables and attachments (transitgateway skill), Site-to-Site VPN without Direct Connect (sitetositevpn skill), or Route 53 DNS routing (route53 skill).

The verbatim description from this skill’s front matter — the string an agent matches on to decide whether to load it.

Colophon for this issue

Colophon

How this issue was made

Source

github.com/aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws, branch main, last pushed 24 September 2026.

Licence

Apache-2.0 — the text of every skill is reproduced unmodified, frontmatter included, under the upstream licence.

Discovery

130 skills found by walking the repository tree for SKILL.md, not by matching a directory convention. 19 distinct layouts observed: plugins/aws-agents-for-devsecops/skills/*/SKILL.md, plugins/aws-agents/skills/*/SKILL.md, plugins/aws-core/skills/*/SKILL.md, skills/core-skills/*/SKILL.md, skills/specialized-skills/analytics-skills/*/SKILL.md, skills/specialized-skills/database-skills/*/SKILL.md, skills/specialized-skills/ec2-skills/*/SKILL.md, skills/specialized-skills/end-user-computing-skills/*/SKILL.md, skills/specialized-skills/messaging-and-streaming-skills/*/SKILL.md, skills/specialized-skills/migration-and-modernization-skills/*/SKILL.md, skills/specialized-skills/networking-and-content-delivery-skills/*/SKILL.md, skills/specialized-skills/operations-skills/*/SKILL.md, skills/specialized-skills/quantum-computing-skills/*/SKILL.md, skills/specialized-skills/resilience-skills/*/SKILL.md, skills/specialized-skills/security-and-identity-skills/*/SKILL.md, skills/specialized-skills/serverless-skills/*/SKILL.md, skills/specialized-skills/storage-skills/*/SKILL.md, skills/specialized-skills/system-table-skills/*/SKILL.md, skills/specialized-skills/web-and-mobile-development/*/SKILL.md.

Duplicates collapsed

34 mirror copies folded into their canonical skill — republished for Alternate. Copies match on content hash and on position once a leading per-agent prefix is stripped, because the same skill is routinely shipped under a dozen agent directories with a dozen different hashes.

Issue colours

Resolved from a curated brand profile — hue 65°, chroma 0.174. Two accent tones are generated per issue and each is proven against its own ground before it ships: a single accent that passes AA on both light and dark paper is arithmetically impossible.

Heading repairs

1 repair applied to this skill so the document has one h1 and no skipped levels:

Shifted “6 headings” from h1 to h2 so the skill title is the only h1.

Spec compliance

Every skill satisfies the Agent Skills specification’s frontmatter rules.

Images

Images inside a skill come from the upstream repository. Where the author gave no alternative text we mark the image decorative rather than inventing a description — a plausible caption we made up is worse than none for the reader who depends on it.

Marketplace

A plugin manifest is published at .claude-plugin/marketplace.json by Amazon Web Services, declaring 4 plugins. It is read for editorial metadata only — never as the skill index, which is always the repository tree.

Signal

Install counts come from skills.sh. They measure downloads, not quality, and an unranked repository is not an unread one.

Agent surfaces

The whole issue is available as one markdown document at /aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws.md, and each skill at its own .md URL.

Publication

Set by Skills Docs from the source repository. Body text is Literata at the reader’s chosen size and measure; code is Geist Mono. Nothing on this page was written by us except this paragraph.

Goal	Reference
Choose dedicated vs hosted vs a link aggregation group, then complete the cross connect	choosing a Direct Connect connection type (opens in a new tab)
Create a private, public, or transit virtual interface and bring up BGP	creating a virtual interface and configuring BGP (opens in a new tab)
Reach many VPCs over one connection through a Direct Connect gateway	connecting many VPCs through a Direct Connect gateway (opens in a new tab)
Encrypt traffic in transit with MACsec or a private IP Site-to-Site VPN	encrypting traffic over Direct Connect (opens in a new tab)
Make the connection survive a failure and tune failover speed	making a Direct Connect connection resilient (opens in a new tab)
Bundle connections into one logical link and manage members	managing link aggregation groups (opens in a new tab)
Connect on-premises sites to each other over the AWS backbone	setting up SiteLink (opens in a new tab)
Move from a virtual private gateway to a transit gateway without dropping traffic	migrating from a virtual private gateway to a transit gateway (opens in a new tab)

Routing notes

Connection model comes first. The choosing-a-connection-type reference is the entry point for a customer with no link yet. It settles dedicated vs hosted vs a link aggregation group, checks location support for the chosen speed, and separates a hosted connection from a hosted virtual interface, a distinction customers confuse constantly. Run it before any cross connect is ordered, since port speed cannot change after the connection is created.
A connection carries no traffic until a virtual interface exists. After the cross connect is live, the creating-a-virtual-interface reference is the required next step. The virtual interface type (private, public, or transit) decides what the connection can reach and is fixed at creation. The jumbo-frame maximum transmission unit (MTU) should be set at creation but, on a private or transit virtual interface, can be changed later with a brief connectivity disruption.
One VPC vs many VPCs. A single VPC in one Region can be reached over a private virtual interface to a virtual private gateway. Reaching many VPCs, crossing accounts, or crossing Regions is the Direct Connect gateway reference, which also owns the cross-account transit gateway proposal-and-acceptance handshake.
Encryption is a separate, deliberate step. Direct Connect is not encrypted in transit by default. The encrypting-traffic reference compares MACsec (Layer 2, over the cross connect) against a private IP Site-to-Site VPN over a transit virtual interface (the recommended IPsec path). Route here whenever the customer mentions regulated data or encryption.
Resiliency model vs failover speed are two different questions. The resiliency reference covers both: the Resiliency Toolkit sets the topology and service level target, while BGP hold-timer tuning and Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) set how fast failover actually converges.
Link aggregation group as a model vs as ongoing management. The connection-type reference introduces the link aggregation group as a model choice at order time. The managing-link-aggregation-groups reference owns ongoing member add/remove and minimum-links behavior, where removing a member can take the whole group down.
Migration is order-dependent. The virtual-private-gateway-to-transit-gateway migration reference exists because doing the cutover steps out of order drops production traffic. Route any “we outgrew the single-VPC model” request here rather than to the plain Direct Connect gateway reference.

Security Considerations

Direct Connect provides a private link into VPC resources, so the security posture differs from the public internet path. Carry these into every task:

Not encrypted by default. Direct Connect does not encrypt traffic in transit. You MUST treat encryption as a separate, deliberate step (MACsec or a private IP Site-to-Site VPN) before regulated or sensitive data crosses the link. See the encrypting-traffic reference.
Physical and colocation security. The link terminates on customer equipment at a Direct Connect location or partner colocation. You SHOULD remind the customer that physical access control and partner trust at that facility are part of the connection’s security boundary.
Monitoring and alerting. You SHOULD recommend CloudWatch alarms on connection state and virtual interface BGP status so connection-state changes and failures trigger alerts rather than relying on manual detection.
Audit logging. You SHOULD confirm CloudTrail is enabled and logging directconnect API calls (connection, virtual interface, and gateway-association changes) so all configuration changes are captured for audit and compliance.
CloudWatch Logs encryption. You SHOULD encrypt CloudWatch Logs log groups that receive Direct Connect-related logs or alarm state data with a KMS key, so sensitive connection metadata is protected at rest.
Least-privilege IAM. You MUST scope IAM permissions for directconnect API actions to the specific actions and resources each principal needs, and prefer ephemeral IAM credentials over long-lived IAM user access keys. You MUST NOT grant directconnect:* on resource * or attach any *FullAccess managed policy; instead scope actions to specific resource ARNs, e.g. arn:aws:directconnect:*:*:dxcon/{connection_id} for a connection, so a compromised principal cannot touch every Direct Connect resource in the account.
Route leaks between VPCs. You SHOULD warn that advertising a supernet that overlaps VPC CIDRs can cause unintended VPC-to-VPC traffic over a shared Direct Connect gateway; mitigate with specific prefixes, separate gateways, or transit gateway blackhole routes.

Directconnect

AWS Direct Connect

Overview

Which Direct Connect task do you need?

Routing notes

Security Considerations

Additional Resources

About this skill

Trigger

Colophon

Directconnect

AWS Direct Connect

Overview

Which Direct Connect task do you need?

Routing notes

Security Considerations

Additional Resources

Appendix 89.1–89.8

ReferencesMarkdown · 8 files

About this skill

Trigger

Colophon

Appendix 89.1–89.8

ReferencesMarkdown · 8 files