aws-iam

A set of security rules for AWS IAM permissions. AWS IAM controls which users, services, and applications may access cloud resources.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it when writing or reviewing IAM roles and policies in IAM, CDK, SAM, or CloudFormation files.
Why use it?
It reduces unnecessary access by requiring narrowly scoped permissions, specific resources, controlled trust relationships, and regular review.

Cursor rule for Cursor

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add rules/jimmypocock/cursor-rules/aws-iam
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/jimmypocock/cursor-rules

Made for: Cursor.

Per session 5 Only the description is in the session, so the agent can decide to use it. The body loads when it is invoked.
When invoked 859 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00005 $0.00859
Opus 5 $0.00003 $0.00430
Sonnet 5 $0.00001 $0.00172
Haiku 4.5 $0.00001 $0.00086

Measured 3d ago against content hash 7d2686431912, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

aws-iam scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 3d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

.cursor/rules/aws-iam.mdc · 113 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 113 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.


Description: AWS IAM Security Best Practices Globs: /iam//.ts, /iam//.json, /cdk//.ts, /sam//.yaml, /cloudformation//*.yaml

AWS IAM Development Standards

@base.mdc @typescript.mdc

IAM Policy Design

  • Apply the principle of least privilege for all IAM roles and policies
  • Grant only the minimum permissions necessary for the required task
  • Use specific ARNs instead of wildcards when possible
  • Add conditions to further restrict access when appropriate
  • Separate permissions by function or service
  • Review and audit IAM policies regularly
  • Use policy variables to make policies more precise
  • Implement resource-based policies where applicable

IAM Role Structure

  • Create purpose-specific roles for different functions
  • Assign appropriate trust relationships to roles
  • Set appropriate session durations for assumed roles
  • Use role paths to organize roles by application or service
  • Implement proper cross-account role access patterns
  • Document purpose and usage of each role
  • Organize roles using proper naming conventions
  • Apply strict permission boundaries for delegated permissions

Lambda Function IAM Roles

  • Create function-specific IAM roles
  • Grant only permissions needed by the specific Lambda function
  • Use resource-based conditions for additional security
  • Include CloudWatch Logs permissions for proper logging
  • Add X-Ray permissions if tracing is enabled
  • Implement resource-level permissions when possible
  • Document all permissions in comments or metadata
  • Follow the same-account principle for resource access

API Gateway IAM Integration

  • Use resource policies to control API access
  • Implement proper IAM authentication for private APIs
  • Create API-specific roles for Lambda integrations
  • Separate roles for different API stages
  • Include proper CloudWatch Logs permissions
  • Implement custom authorizers with appropriate permissions
  • Use IAM tags for access control when appropriate
  • Apply API key restrictions correctly

Read the full file on GitHub · 113 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 3d ago First seen · 113 lines · 5 tokens per session scan A 7d2686431912

Subscribe to this mod's changes

aws-iam is a cursor rule published in the GitHub repository jimmypocock/cursor-rules (8 stars, last pushed 1y ago), licensed MIT. It adds 5 tokens to every session and 859 once invoked, about $0.0000 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-31.