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, itscall_awstool offers a streamlined alternative — but every operation in this skill MUST work via the AWS CLI alone. Data-plane HTTP calls against AOS / AOSS useawscurlfor 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.
| Capability | Entry-point reference |
|---|---|
| migration — Solr / Elasticsearch / self-managed OpenSearch into AOS or AOSS. Schema/query translation, sizing, cutover. | references/assessment-workflow.md |
| provisioning — Provisioning and managing AOS domains and AOSS collections. Lifecycle, upgrades, storage tiers, FGAC, monitoring. | references/provisioning-reference.md |
| search — Vector / semantic / hybrid / sparse / dense / RAG retrieval. Bedrock connectors, FAISS HNSW vs Lucene. | references/search-semantic-search-guide.md |
| log-analytics — Log search, observability, PPL, OSI ingestion, anomaly detection, OpenSearch Dashboards. Splunk/Datadog/ELK alternatives. | references/log-analytics-guide.md |
| trace-analytics — Distributed traces with OpenTelemetry. Span queries, service maps, Data Prepper. | references/trace-analytics-trace-queries.md |
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 thecurrent_timetool (returns ISO 8601 in UTC). Read the skill version from this file's frontmatterversion: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> 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., "migrate from Solr AND set up RAG on the new domain"), pick the dominant capability for the response, then close with a one-line handoff: "For \<other capability\>, see
references/<other-capability>-<entry>.md."
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— sizing math, instance family details, OR1 trade-offs, watermarks, JVM heap rules.references/vector-knn.md— k-NN engines, memory math, RAG ingestion patterns, ELSER alternatives.references/observability.md— log analytics patterns, ISM, UltraWarm/Cold tiering, Splunk/Datadog migration playbooks.references/security.md— FGAC, encryption, VPC patterns, audit logs, compliance posture.references/personas.md— communication style per persona.references/assessment-gotchas.md— production gotcha catalog (cite by number in Migration specifics or Risks/blockers tables; each gotcha carries aCategory:tag that determines its lane).references/assessment-knowledge-retrieval.md— topic → tool → URL recipe for batched verification.
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>.
- 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
big5workload + your own judgment list.
