Agent skill

Cloudformation Best Practices

by aiskillstore in aiskillstore/marketplace

CloudFormation template optimization, nested stacks, drift detection, and production-ready patterns.

No licenceAuto-check passedDevOps & Cloud

Install Cloudformation Best Practices

skills CLI
$ npx skills add aiskillstore/marketplace --skill cloudformation-best-practices -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install aiskillstore/marketplace cloudformation-best-practices --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/aiskillstore/marketplace.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/sickn33/cloudformation-best-practices .claude/skills/cloudformation-best-practices && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
cloudformation-best-practices
GitHub stars
430
Used in
3 other repos
Token cost
~617 tokens
SKILL.md length
190 words
Files
2
Skills in repo
1,044
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
None found

At a glance

CloudFormation template optimization, nested stacks, drift detection, and production-ready patterns.

  • Works in 6 steps: Use YAML over JSON for readability. → Parameterize environment-specific… → Apply DeletionPolicy: Retain on stateful… → …
  • Reviewing CF templates
  • SKILL.md covers Use this skill when, Do not use this skill when, Instructions and Examples, plus 2 more sections
  • Calls aws

What it does

Cloudformation Best Practices is an agent skill from aiskillstore/marketplace. CloudFormation template optimization, nested stacks, drift detection, and production-ready patterns. Use when writing or reviewing CF templates.

Its SKILL.md is about 620 tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. The skill folder holds 1 other file (for example `skill-report.json`).

It sits in DevOps & Cloud, covering Infrastructure as code and GitOps. It works with AWS CloudFormation. The repository describes itself as: Security-audited skills for Claude, Codex & Claude Code. One-click install, quality verified.

When your agent uses it

  • Reviewing CF templates
  • Tasks that involve Infrastructure as code
  • Tasks that involve GitOps

Example prompts

  • “/cloudformation-best-practices”

Workflow steps

6 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

  1. Use YAML over JSON for readability.
  2. Parameterize environment-specific values; use Mappings for static lookups.
  3. Apply DeletionPolicy: Retain on stateful resources (RDS, S3, DynamoDB).
  4. Use Conditions to support multi-environment templates.
  5. Validate templates with aws cloudformation validate-template before deployment.
  6. Prefer !Sub over !Join for string interpolation.

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 755bc35. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    Shell commands in SKILL.md call:

    • aws

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md. Its commands use aws, which can reach the network depending on how they are called.

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Cloudformation Best Practices loads about 617 tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 44 tokens; SKILL.md has 190 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~44
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~617

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

Without a licence we can't republish the file, so here is its outline and opening line. It has 190 words (~617 tokens).

“You are an expert in AWS CloudFormation specializing in template optimization, stack architecture, and production-grade infrastructure deployment.”

— opening of SKILL.md by aiskillstore
name
cloudformation-best-practices
metadata.model
sonnet
risk
unknown
source
community

Read the full SKILL.md on GitHub

Files

SKILL.md and 1 other file in skills/sickn33/cloudformation-best-practices of aiskillstore/marketplace.

  • SKILL.md
  • skill-report.json

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 755bc35

Used in 3 other repositories

We found 12 copies of this SKILL.md (exact, near-identical or edited) in other folders, from 3 other GitHub owners. This page covers the copy in aiskillstore/marketplace, which our catalogue first saw on October 7, 2026.

Compare with similar skills

Cloudformation Best Practices next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Cloudformation Best Practices compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Cloudformation Best Practices this skillaiskillstore/marketplace4303 repos~617Automated safety check: PassNone
Cloudformationsickn33/agentic-awesome-skills47k2 repos~3.6kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Detecting Infrastructure Driftjeremylongshore/tons-of-skills-marketplace2.8k—~1.3kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
AWS Cdk Developmentzxkane/aws-skills3672 repos~2.5kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
AWS Cloud Advisortech-leads-club/agent-skills7k—~2.1kAutomated safety check: PassCC-BY-4.0
AWS Native Runtime Investigationpulumi/pulumi-aws-native108—~753Automated safety check: PassApache-2.0

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Categories

Questions about Cloudformation Best Practices

What does Cloudformation Best Practices do?

CloudFormation template optimization, nested stacks, drift detection, and production-ready patterns. Cloudformation Best Practices is an agent skill from aiskillstore/marketplace. CloudFormation template optimization, nested stacks, drift detection, and production-ready patterns.

When should I use Cloudformation Best Practices?

Cloudformation Best Practices fits situations like: reviewing CF templates; tasks that involve Infrastructure as code; tasks that involve GitOps.

How do I install Cloudformation Best Practices in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add aiskillstore/marketplace --skill cloudformation-best-practices -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/sickn33/cloudformation-best-practices in aiskillstore/marketplace) into .claude/skills/cloudformation-best-practices in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Cloudformation Best Practices in Codex?

Run `npx skills add aiskillstore/marketplace --skill cloudformation-best-practices -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/sickn33/cloudformation-best-practices in aiskillstore/marketplace) into .agents/skills/cloudformation-best-practices in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Cloudformation Best Practices in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add aiskillstore/marketplace --skill cloudformation-best-practices -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/cloudformation-best-practices, .gemini/skills/cloudformation-best-practices, .github/skills/cloudformation-best-practices and .opencode/skills/cloudformation-best-practices in your project.

What does Cloudformation Best Practices need to run?

Going by SKILL.md and its folder, Cloudformation Best Practices needs the command-line tools its instructions call (aws).

Does Cloudformation Best Practices access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Any network use would come from the scripts or tools the agent runs. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Cloudformation Best Practices safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Cloudformation Best Practices use?

No licence was found for Cloudformation Best Practices or its repository. Without one, default copyright applies: ask the author before reusing or redistributing it.

How many tokens does Cloudformation Best Practices use?

About 617 tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 2.5k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to Cloudformation Best Practices?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Cloudformation Best Practices: Cloudformation (sickn33/agentic-awesome-skills, 47k stars), Detecting Infrastructure Drift (jeremylongshore/tons-of-skills-marketplace, 2.8k stars), AWS Cdk Development (zxkane/aws-skills, 367 stars) and AWS Cloud Advisor (tech-leads-club/agent-skills, 7k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Cloudformation Best Practices?

aiskillstore (a GitHub organization) maintains it in aiskillstore/marketplace, which has 430 GitHub stars. The repository holds 1,044 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 9, 2026.

Source: aiskillstore/marketplace on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.