itsmostafa/aws-agent-skills/ecs

Name: ecs
Author: itsmostafa

Trust tier 3

community
ext:[{"type":"hook","description":"Pre/post lifecycle hooks"}]

Source check pending

Checking that the SKILL.md file is still in the repository.

AWS ECS container orchestration for running Docker containers. Use when deploying containerized applications, configuring task definitions, setting up services, managing clusters, or troubleshooting container issues.

Install

npx vskill@latest install itsmostafa/aws-agent-skills/ecs

Semi-extensibleMentions customization, but needs skill-specific knowledge. Read the extensible skills standard

SKILL.md

AWS ECS

Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS) is a fully managed container orchestration service. Run containers on AWS Fargate (serverless) or EC2 instances.

Core Concepts
Common Patterns
CLI Reference
Best Practices
Troubleshooting
References

Core Concepts

Cluster

Logical grouping of tasks or services. Can contain Fargate tasks, EC2 instances, or both.

Task Definition

Blueprint for your application. Defines containers, resources, networking, and IAM roles.

Task

Running instance of a task definition. Can run standalone or as part of a service.

Service

Maintains desired count of tasks. Handles deployments, load balancing, and auto scaling.

Launch Types

Type	Description	Use Case
Fargate	Serverless, pay per task	Most workloads
EC2	Self-managed instances	GPU, Windows, specific requirements

Common Patterns

Create a Fargate Cluster

AWS CLI:

bash

# Create cluster
aws ecs create-cluster --cluster-name my-cluster
 
# With capacity providers
aws ecs create-cluster \
  --cluster-name my-cluster \
  --capacity-providers FARGATE FARGATE_SPOT \
  --default-capacity-provider-strategy \
    capacityProvider=FARGATE,weight=1 \
    capacityProvider=FARGATE_SPOT,weight=1

Register Task Definition

bash

cat > task-definition.json << 'EOF'
{
  "family": "web-app",
  "networkMode": "awsvpc",
  "requiresCompatibilities": ["FARGATE"],
  "cpu": "256",
  "memory": "512",
  "executionRoleArn": "arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/ecsTaskExecutionRole",
  "taskRoleArn": "arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/ecsTaskRole",
  "containerDefinitions": [
    {
      "name": "web",
      "image": "123456789012.dkr.ecr.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/my-app:latest",
      "portMappings": [
        {
          "containerPort": 8080,
          "protocol": "tcp"
        }
      ],
      "environment": [
        {"name": "NODE_ENV", "value": "production"}
      ],
      "secrets": [
        {
          "name": "DB_PASSWORD",
          "valueFrom": "arn:aws:secretsmanager:us-east-1:123456789012:secret:db-password"
        }
      ],
      "logConfiguration": {
        "logDriver": "awslogs",
        "options": {
          "awslogs-group": "/ecs/web-app",
          "awslogs-region": "us-east-1",
          "awslogs-stream-prefix": "ecs",
          "mode": "non-blocking",
          "max-buffer-size": "25m"
        }
      },
      "healthCheck": {
        "command": ["CMD-SHELL", "curl -f http://localhost:8080/health || exit 1"],
        "interval": 30,
        "timeout": 5,
        "retries": 3,
        "startPeriod": 60
      }
    }
  ]
}
EOF
 
aws ecs register-task-definition --cli-input-json file://task-definition.json

Create Service with Load Balancer

bash

aws ecs create-service \
  --cluster my-cluster \
  --service-name web-service \
  --task-definition web-app:1 \
  --desired-count 2 \
  --launch-type FARGATE \
  --network-configuration "awsvpcConfiguration={
    subnets=[subnet-12345678,subnet-87654321],
    securityGroups=[sg-12345678],
    assignPublicIp=DISABLED
  }" \
  --load-balancers "targetGroupArn=arn:aws:elasticloadbalancing:us-east-1:123456789012:targetgroup/web-tg/1234567890123456,containerName=web,containerPort=8080" \
  --health-check-grace-period-seconds 60 \
  --deployment-configuration "deploymentCircuitBreaker={enable=true,rollback=true}"

Run Standalone Task

bash

aws ecs run-task \
  --cluster my-cluster \
  --task-definition my-batch-job:1 \
  --launch-type FARGATE \
  --network-configuration "awsvpcConfiguration={
    subnets=[subnet-12345678],
    securityGroups=[sg-12345678],
    assignPublicIp=ENABLED
  }"

Update Service (Deploy New Image)

bash

# Register new task definition with updated image
aws ecs register-task-definition --cli-input-json file://task-definition.json
 
# Update service to use new version
aws ecs update-service \
  --cluster my-cluster \
  --service web-service \
  --task-definition web-app:2 \
  --force-new-deployment

Fargate Spot with SQS-Based Scaling

Use FARGATE_SPOT for batch/queue workloads to cut costs ~70%. Always include a fallback to regular FARGATE.

bash

# Create service with Spot + fallback
aws ecs create-service \
  --cluster batch-cluster \
  --service-name queue-processor \
  --task-definition my-processor:1 \
  --desired-count 0 \
  --capacity-provider-strategy \
    capacityProvider=FARGATE_SPOT,weight=4,base=0 \
    capacityProvider=FARGATE,weight=1,base=1 \
  --network-configuration "awsvpcConfiguration={
    subnets=[subnet-12345678],
    securityGroups=[sg-12345678],
    assignPublicIp=DISABLED
  }"
 
# Register scalable target (scale to zero when queue empty)
aws application-autoscaling register-scalable-target \
  --service-namespace ecs \
  --resource-id service/batch-cluster/queue-processor \
  --scalable-dimension ecs:service:DesiredCount \
  --min-capacity 0 \
  --max-capacity 20
 
# Scale-out alarm: messages > 100
aws cloudwatch put-metric-alarm \
  --alarm-name queue-scale-out \
  --metric-name ApproximateNumberOfMessagesVisible \
  --namespace AWS/SQS \
  --dimensions Name=QueueName,Value=my-queue \
  --statistic Average \
  --period 60 \
  --evaluation-periods 1 \
  --threshold 100 \
  --comparison-operator GreaterThanThreshold \
  --alarm-actions <scale-out-policy-arn>
 
# Scale-in alarm: queue empty for 3 periods (conservative to avoid flapping)
aws cloudwatch put-metric-alarm \
  --alarm-name queue-scale-in \
  --metric-name ApproximateNumberOfMessagesVisible \
  --namespace AWS/SQS \
  --dimensions Name=QueueName,Value=my-queue \
  --statistic Average \
  --period 60 \
  --evaluation-periods 3 \
  --threshold 0 \
  --comparison-operator LessThanOrEqualToThreshold \
  --alarm-actions <scale-in-policy-arn>

Backlog per task (AWS-recommended): Raw queue depth over-scales. Target-track queue depth / RunningTaskCount via metric math instead; Application Auto Scaling manages the alarms. Requires Container Insights on the cluster (RunningTaskCount in ECS/ContainerInsights). With 0 running tasks the divisor has no data, so this cannot scale from zero; keep the alarm pattern above when min-capacity is 0.

bash

# TargetValue = acceptable latency / avg processing time per message (e.g. 10s / 0.1s = 100)
aws application-autoscaling put-scaling-policy \
  --service-namespace ecs \
  --resource-id service/batch-cluster/queue-processor \
  --scalable-dimension ecs:service:DesiredCount \
  --policy-name sqs-backlog-per-task \
  --policy-type TargetTrackingScaling \
  --target-tracking-scaling-policy-configuration '{
    "TargetValue": 100,
    "CustomizedMetricSpecification": {
      "Metrics": [
        {"Id": "m1", "ReturnData": false, "MetricStat": {"Stat": "Sum",
          "Metric": {"Namespace": "AWS/SQS", "MetricName": "ApproximateNumberOfMessagesVisible",
            "Dimensions": [{"Name": "QueueName", "Value": "my-queue"}]}}},
        {"Id": "m2", "ReturnData": false, "MetricStat": {"Stat": "Average",
          "Metric": {"Namespace": "ECS/ContainerInsights", "MetricName": "RunningTaskCount",
            "Dimensions": [{"Name": "ClusterName", "Value": "batch-cluster"},
                           {"Name": "ServiceName", "Value": "queue-processor"}]}}},
        {"Id": "e1", "Expression": "m1 / m2", "ReturnData": true}
      ]
    }
  }'

Protect in-flight work from scale-in: the worker sets ProtectionEnabled=true while processing (container agent endpoint $ECS_AGENT_URI/task-protection/v1/state, or aws ecs update-task-protection --cluster <c> --tasks <id> --protection-enabled --expires-in-minutes 60) and clears it when done. Task role needs ecs:GetTaskProtection and ecs:UpdateTaskProtection. Service tasks only.

Fargate Spot interruption handling: Spot tasks receive a SIGTERM 2 minutes before termination. Catch it in your application for graceful shutdown. For SQS consumers, call ChangeMessageVisibility on in-flight messages so they return to the queue rather than timing out.

Auto Scaling

bash

# Register scalable target
aws application-autoscaling register-scalable-target \
  --service-namespace ecs \
  --resource-id service/my-cluster/web-service \
  --scalable-dimension ecs:service:DesiredCount \
  --min-capacity 2 \
  --max-capacity 10
 
# Target tracking policy
aws application-autoscaling put-scaling-policy \
  --service-namespace ecs \
  --resource-id service/my-cluster/web-service \
  --scalable-dimension ecs:service:DesiredCount \
  --policy-name cpu-target-tracking \
  --policy-type TargetTrackingScaling \
  --target-tracking-scaling-policy-configuration '{
    "TargetValue": 70.0,
    "PredefinedMetricSpecification": {
      "PredefinedMetricType": "ECSServiceAverageCPUUtilization"
    },
    "ScaleOutCooldown": 60,
    "ScaleInCooldown": 120
  }'

Faster scaling with 20-second metrics: enable high-resolution service metrics, then use ECSServiceAverageCPUUtilizationHighResolution or ECSServiceAverageMemoryUtilizationHighResolution as the PredefinedMetricType. On an existing service the --monitoring change triggers a deployment; create the high-res policy only after it completes. Not supported with CODE_DEPLOY/EXTERNAL deployment controllers. Extra CloudWatch charges apply.

bash

aws ecs update-service \
  --cluster my-cluster \
  --service web-service \
  --monitoring "metricConfigurations=[{metricNames=[CPUUtilization,MemoryUtilization],resolutionSeconds=20}]"

CLI Reference

Cluster Management

Command	Description
`aws ecs create-cluster`	Create cluster
`aws ecs describe-clusters`	Get cluster details
`aws ecs list-clusters`	List clusters
`aws ecs delete-cluster`	Delete cluster

Task Definitions

Command	Description
`aws ecs register-task-definition`	Create task definition
`aws ecs describe-task-definition`	Get task definition
`aws ecs list-task-definitions`	List task definitions
`aws ecs deregister-task-definition`	Deregister version

Services

Command	Description
`aws ecs create-service`	Create service
`aws ecs update-service`	Update service
`aws ecs describe-services`	Get service details
`aws ecs delete-service`	Delete service

Tasks

Command	Description
`aws ecs run-task`	Run standalone task
`aws ecs stop-task`	Stop running task
`aws ecs describe-tasks`	Get task details
`aws ecs list-tasks`	List tasks

Best Practices

Security

Use task roles for AWS API access (not access keys)
Use execution roles for ECR/Secrets access
Store secrets in Secrets Manager or Parameter Store
Use private subnets with NAT gateway
Enable CloudTrail for API auditing
Cap task size with IAM — ecs:task-cpu / ecs:task-memory condition keys apply to RunTask and StartTask as well as RegisterTaskDefinition, CreateService, UpdateService

Performance

Right-size CPU/memory — monitor and adjust
Use Fargate Spot for fault-tolerant workloads (70% savings)
Enable container insights for monitoring
Use service discovery for internal communication

Reliability

Deploy across multiple AZs
Configure health checks properly
Set appropriate deregistration delay
Use circuit breaker for deployments

bash

aws ecs update-service \
  --cluster my-cluster \
  --service web-service \
  --deployment-configuration '{
    "deploymentCircuitBreaker": {
      "enable": true,
      "rollback": true,
      "resetOnHealthyTask": true,
      "thresholdConfiguration": {"type": "BOUNDED_PERCENT", "value": 50}
    }
  }'

This is the start of the file. Read the full SKILL.md on GitHub.

Security

Security scanPassed, 95 of 100Pattern checks on the skill's files.
Model reviewPassed

See the full security report

Quality evaluation

Task evaluationNot runNo evaluation yet. Run one in Skill Studio.

See evaluation results

Source

SKILL.md in the repositoryCheckingskills/ecs/SKILL.md

Popularity

Repository stars: 1,158
Repository forks: 443
7-day trend score: 35

Stars and forks are for the whole GitHub repository, not this skill alone. Refreshed 22 Mar 2026, 7 months ago.

Extension points

hookPre/post lifecycle hooks

Learn the extensible skills standard

Works with

Any agent vskill installs to: 56 targets in all. These 39 have a page on this site.

Claude Code
Cursor
GitHub Copilot
Windsurf
Codex
Gemini CLI
Cline
Amp
Roo Code
Goose
Continue
Kilo Code
Junie
Trae
OpenHands
Qwen Code
AI Agent
Tabnine Chat
Sourcegraph Cody
Amazon Q
Firebase Genkit
Sweep
Devin
Phind
Mentat
Claude Desktop
Aider
GPT Pilot
Plandex
bolt.new
v0
Replit Agent
Anse
TypingMind
BetterChatGPT
LibreChat
Warp AI
Pieces
Fig AI

Embed badge

[![vskill VERIFIED](https://verified-skill.com/api/v1/skills/itsmostafa/aws-agent-skills/ecs/badge)](https://verified-skill.com/skills/itsmostafa/aws-agent-skills/ecs)

Something wrong with this skill or its page? Tell us.

Install

SKILL.md

AWS ECS

Table of Contents

Core Concepts

Cluster

Task Definition

Task

Service

Launch Types

Common Patterns

Create a Fargate Cluster

Register Task Definition

Create Service with Load Balancer

Run Standalone Task

Update Service (Deploy New Image)

Fargate Spot with SQS-Based Scaling

Auto Scaling

CLI Reference

Cluster Management

Task Definitions

Services

Tasks

Best Practices

Security

Performance

Reliability

Security

Quality evaluation

Source

Popularity

Extension points

Works with