agents-connect

connect

Give your AgentCore agent access to external APIs, tools, and services via the AgentCore Gateway — and control what it can access with Cedar policies.

When to use

• You want your agent to call an external API or MCP server
• You want to expose Lambda functions as agent tools
• You have an OpenAPI spec you want to turn into agent tools
• Your agent needs credentials to call an external service
• You want to restrict which tools your agent can call (Cedar policies)
• You want role-based or amount-based access control on tool calls
• A gateway connection, tool call, or policy authorization is failing

For adding Cedar policies to control tool access, load references/policy.md.

Input

$ARGUMENTS is optional:

/connect                    # interactive — asks what you're connecting to
/connect mcp                # MCP server setup
/connect lambda             # Lambda function as tools
/connect openapi            # OpenAPI schema as tools
/connect credential         # Add a credential for outbound auth

Process

Step 0: Verify CLI version

Run agentcore --version. This skill requires v0.9.0 or later. If the version is older, tell the developer to run agentcore update before proceeding.

Step 1: Read the project

Read agentcore/agentcore.json to understand:

• What framework the project uses
• What gateways and targets are already configured (in the agentCoreGateways array)

If no project context: Ask what they're trying to connect to and proceed with the appropriate pattern.

Step 2: Identify what they're connecting to

Ask (or infer from $ARGUMENTS):

"What are you connecting your agent to?

1. An external MCP server (e.g., a third-party tool provider)
2. A Lambda function you've written
3. An API with an OpenAPI spec
4. An AWS API Gateway REST API
5. An external service with no OpenAPI spec, MCP server, or Lambda in front of it — and you can't add one"

Options 1–4 front the service as a Gateway target. This is the default path: the gateway handles outbound auth via its credential providers (so the agent code never sees the secret), the tool becomes discoverable over MCP, and policy engines can authorize or deny calls at the edge. Pick the target type that matches the service.