Official agent skill

Troubleshooting S3 Files

by aws in aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws

Diagnoses and resolves Amazon S3 Files issues including mount failures, permission errors, synchronization problems, and performance issues.

OfficialApache-2.0Auto-check: notesBackend & APIs

Install Troubleshooting S3 Files

skills CLI
$ npx skills add aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws --skill troubleshooting-s3-files -a claude-code

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

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws troubleshooting-s3-files --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/aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/specialized-skills/storage-skills/troubleshooting-s3-files .claude/skills/troubleshooting-s3-files && 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
troubleshooting-s3-files
GitHub stars
2.8k
Token cost
~1.8k tokens
SKILL.md length
708 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
138
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
Apache-2.0

At a glance

Diagnoses and resolves Amazon S3 Files issues including mount failures, permission errors, synchronization problems, and performance issues.

  • Works in 10 steps: Verify Dependencies → Classify the Issue → Category A — Client Installation → …
  • The user has an S3 file system that is not mounting
  • SKILL.md covers Overview, Common Tasks, Troubleshooting and Security Considerations, plus 1 more section
  • Calls aws and yum

What it does

Troubleshooting S3 Files is an agent skill from aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws, published by the product's own GitHub organization. Diagnoses and resolves Amazon S3 Files issues including mount failures, permission errors, synchronization problems, and performance issues. Use when the user has an S3 file system that is not mounting, returning access denied, not syncing changes to S3, showing files in lost+found, or performing slower than expected.

Its SKILL.md is about 1.8k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. It is a single SKILL.md file with no bundled scripts.

It sits in Backend & APIs, covering File uploads and storage. It works with Amazon Web Services and Amazon S3. The repository describes itself as: Official, AWS-supported MCP servers, skills, and plugins to help AI agents build on AWS. The licence is Apache-2.0.

When your agent uses it

  • The user has an S3 file system that is not mounting
  • Returning access denied
  • Not syncing changes to S3
  • Showing files in lost+found

Example prompts

  • “Use the troubleshooting-s3-files skill to diagnose and resolves Amazon S3 Files issues including mount failures, permission errors, synchronization…”
  • “/troubleshooting-s3-files”

Workflow steps

10 steps, taken from the step headings in SKILL.md.

  1. Verify Dependencies
  2. Classify the Issue
  3. Category A — Client Installation
  4. Category B — Network/Security Group
  5. Category C — IAM Permissions
  6. Category D — Synchronization
  7. Category E — Conflict Resolution
  8. Category F — Performance
  9. Category G — Encryption/KMS
  10. Category H — VPC DNS

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit df2ab44. 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
    • yum

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

  • Network

    Links to these hosts (documentation or services it may open):

    • docs.aws.amazon.com

    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

Troubleshooting S3 Files loads about 1.8k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 86 tokens; SKILL.md has 708 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~86
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~1.8k

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: notes

The automated check noted patterns worth knowing about, such as sudo or a known installer.

  • NoteRuns commands with sudoSKILL.md:53
    sudo yum -y install amazon-efs-utils  # Amazon Linux
  • NoteRuns commands with sudoSKILL.md:179
    sudo tar -czf /tmp/s3files-logs.tar.gz /var/log/amazon/efs/ /etc/amazon/efs/s3files-utils.conf

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

The full file from aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws at commit df2ab44, republished under its Apache-2.0 licence (© aws). 708 words, ~1,788 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/troubleshooting-s3-files/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
troubleshooting-s3-files
description
Diagnoses and resolves Amazon S3 Files issues including mount failures, permission errors, synchronization problems, and performance issues. Use when the user has an S3 file system that is not mounting, returning access denied, not syncing changes to S3, showing files in lost+found, or performing slower than expected.
version
1

Troubleshooting S3 Files

Overview

Diagnoses and resolves Amazon S3 Files issues: mount failures, IAM permissions, synchronization, conflict resolution, and performance.

For authoritative guidance, see S3 Files Troubleshooting.

Common Tasks

0. Verify Dependencies
  • You MUST verify aws CLI is available with s3files subcommand support
  • You MUST confirm valid AWS credentials
  • You MUST ONLY check for tool existence and version — MUST NOT execute destructive or mutating commands during verification
  • You MUST inform the user if any required tools are missing
  • You MUST respect the user's decision to abort if tools are unavailable
  • You SHOULD explain steps before executing and wait for user confirmation on write commands
1. Classify the Issue
SymptomCategory
mount.s3files: command not foundA: Client Installation
Connection timed out during mountB: Network/Security Group
Mount hangs indefinitely (no timeout)B: Network/Security Group
Access denied during mountC: IAM Permissions
File system stuck in "creating"C: IAM Permissions
Permission denied on file operationsC: IAM Permissions
Files not appearing in S3 after writeD: Synchronization
Files in .s3files-lost+found directoryE: Conflict Resolution
Slow reads or high latencyF: Performance
NFS server errorG: Encryption/KMS
DNS name resolution failsH: VPC DNS
2. Category A — Client Installation

mount.s3files: command not found means amazon-efs-utils is missing or < v3.0.0.

bash
sudo yum -y install amazon-efs-utils  # Amazon Linux
3. Category B — Network/Security Group

Connection timeout is the #1 mount failure — almost always security groups.

Verify mount target exists in the instance's AZ:

bash
aws s3files list-mount-targets --file-system-id fs-ID --region REGION

Cross-AZ mounting works but adds latency.

Verify security groups — most common fix:

  • Mount target SG MUST have inbound TCP 2049 from compute SG
  • Compute SG MUST have outbound TCP 2049 to mount target SG
  • Fix: aws ec2 authorize-security-group-ingress --group-id sg-MT --protocol tcp --port 2049 --source-group sg-COMPUTE

Test connectivity:

bash
nc -zv az-ID.fs-ID.s3files.REGION.on.aws 2049

Note: These SG troubleshooting steps also apply to EFS — use aws efs describe-mount-targets instead.

Mount hangs in isolated VPC: If the VPC has no internet access, S3 Files requires a CloudWatch Logs VPC endpoint (com.amazonaws.REGION.logs) for mount to complete.

4. Category C — IAM Permissions

File system stuck in "creating" status: S3 Files does NOT validate IAM role permissions at creation time. Wrong trust policy or missing permissions → stuck in creating with access denied in statusMessage.

Check status:

bash
aws s3files get-file-system --file-system-id fs-ID --region REGION

Check statusMessage. If access denied, fix the IAM role and delete/recreate.

Mount access denied: Compute role needs s3files:ClientMount. For dev/test only, AmazonS3FilesClientFullAccess is acceptable — avoid in production.

Write permission denied: Compute role needs s3files:ClientWrite

Root access denied: Compute role needs s3files:ClientRootAccess. ⚠️ Bypasses POSIX permissions — prefer access points with scoped POSIX users.

Check file system policy:

bash
aws s3files get-file-system-policy --file-system-id fs-ID --region REGION
Show full SKILL.md (298 more words)Show less
5. Category D — Synchronization

Files not appearing in S3: Writes sync within ~60 seconds. Check status:

bash
getfattr -n "user.s3files.status;$(date -u +%s)" filename --only-values

Common ExportError values:

ErrorFix
S3AccessDeniedFile system IAM role lacks S3 write permissions
S3BucketNotFoundBucket deleted or renamed
RoleAssumptionFailedTrust policy misconfigured
EncryptionKeyInaccessibleKMS key disabled or permissions revoked
PathTooLongFile path exceeds 1,024 byte S3 key limit

Monitor: PendingExports CloudWatch metric. Growing = exceeds 800 files/sec rate.

6. Category E — Conflict Resolution

Files in .s3files-lost+found-{fs-id} = sync conflict (modified via FS and S3 simultaneously). S3 wins; FS version moved to lost+found.

7. Category F — Performance

First access latency: Normal — first directory access imports metadata.

Intelligent read routing not working: Compute role needs s3:GetObject on the bucket.

Slow writes: If PendingExports growing, distribute across multiple file systems.

8. Category G — Encryption/KMS

NFS server error with encrypted FS = KMS issue. Verify key is enabled and role has KMS permissions.

9. Category H — VPC DNS

DNS resolution failure = VPC DNS settings disabled.

bash
aws ec2 describe-vpc-attribute --vpc-id vpc-ID --attribute enableDnsHostnames
aws ec2 describe-vpc-attribute --vpc-id vpc-ID --attribute enableDnsSupport

Both MUST be true. If not:

bash
aws ec2 modify-vpc-attribute --vpc-id vpc-ID --enable-dns-hostnames Value=true
aws ec2 modify-vpc-attribute --vpc-id vpc-ID --enable-dns-support Value=true

Troubleshooting

AWS CLI endpoint URL cannot be resolved

CLI is too old for S3 Files. Run aws --version — if v1.x, upgrade to AWS CLI v2: Installing the AWS CLI.

ECS task fails with DNS resolution error

Used efsVolumeConfiguration instead of s3filesVolumeConfiguration. Fix: use fileSystemArn in S3 Files-specific volume config.

S3 Files vs other products confusion

S3 Files is NOT Mountpoint for S3, S3 File Gateway, or File Cache. Uses aws s3files CLI, s3files: IAM actions, mount -t s3files.

Enable Debug Logs

Set logging_level = DEBUG in /etc/amazon/efs/s3files-utils.conf. Logs at /var/log/amazon/efs/mount.log.

Collect Logs for AWS Support
bash
sudo tar -czf /tmp/s3files-logs.tar.gz /var/log/amazon/efs/ /etc/amazon/efs/s3files-utils.conf

Security Considerations

  • When diagnosing IAM issues, verify least-privilege — avoid FullAccess as a shortcut
  • Without a file system policy, any VPC client can mount
  • Restrict /var/log/amazon/efs/ access — logs contain S3 key names

Additional Resources

© aws, Apache-2.0. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

Just SKILL.md in skills/specialized-skills/storage-skills/troubleshooting-s3-files of aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit df2ab44

Compare with similar skills

Troubleshooting S3 Files 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.

Troubleshooting S3 Files compared with similar skills
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Troubleshooting S3 Files this skillaws/agent-toolkit-for-aws2.8k—~1.8kAutomated safety check: NotesApache-2.0
Django Storages for S3Jeffallan/claude-skills12k—~1.9kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Neon Object Storageneondatabase/agent-skills100—~3.5kAutomated safety check: NotesApache-2.0
AWS S3sickn33/agentic-awesome-skills47k2 repos~3.1kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
S3itsmostafa/aws-agent-skills1.2k—~2.3kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Remediating S3 Bucket Misconfigurationmukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills34k—~3kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0

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Categories

Questions about Troubleshooting S3 Files

What does Troubleshooting S3 Files do?

Diagnoses and resolves Amazon S3 Files issues including mount failures, permission errors, synchronization problems, and performance issues. Troubleshooting S3 Files is an agent skill from aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws, published by the product's own GitHub organization. Diagnoses and resolves Amazon S3 Files issues including mount failures, permission errors, synchronization problems, and performance issues.

When should I use Troubleshooting S3 Files?

Troubleshooting S3 Files fits situations like: the user has an S3 file system that is not mounting; returning access denied; not syncing changes to S3; showing files in lost+found.

How do I install Troubleshooting S3 Files in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws --skill troubleshooting-s3-files -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/specialized-skills/storage-skills/troubleshooting-s3-files in aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws) into .claude/skills/troubleshooting-s3-files in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Troubleshooting S3 Files in Codex?

Run `npx skills add aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws --skill troubleshooting-s3-files -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/specialized-skills/storage-skills/troubleshooting-s3-files in aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws) into .agents/skills/troubleshooting-s3-files in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Troubleshooting S3 Files 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 aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws --skill troubleshooting-s3-files -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/troubleshooting-s3-files, .gemini/skills/troubleshooting-s3-files, .github/skills/troubleshooting-s3-files and .opencode/skills/troubleshooting-s3-files in your project.

What does Troubleshooting S3 Files need to run?

Going by SKILL.md and its folder, Troubleshooting S3 Files needs the command-line tools its instructions call (aws and yum).

Does Troubleshooting S3 Files access the network?

SKILL.md names 1 domain. As links in the text: docs.aws.amazon.com. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Troubleshooting S3 Files safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found notes only (runs commands with sudo), nothing it rates as a warning. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Troubleshooting S3 Files use?

Troubleshooting S3 Files is published under the Apache-2.0 licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Troubleshooting S3 Files use?

About 1.8k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 7.2k 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 Troubleshooting S3 Files?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Troubleshooting S3 Files: Django Storages for S3 (Jeffallan/claude-skills, 12k stars), Neon Object Storage (neondatabase/agent-skills, 100 stars), AWS S3 (sickn33/agentic-awesome-skills, 47k stars) and S3 (itsmostafa/aws-agent-skills, 1.2k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Troubleshooting S3 Files?

aws (a GitHub organization, an official publisher) maintains it in aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws, which has 2,830 GitHub stars. The repository holds 138 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 9, 2026.

Source: aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.