AWS

Getting Started

Connect AWS to Blocks to enable agents to interact with your cloud infrastructure. Agents can inspect resources, query services, assist with deployments, and help troubleshoot issues across your AWS environment.

Blocks operates with the full privileges of the connected IAM user. We strongly recommend provisioning a dedicated IAM user with read-only access (e.g. the ReadOnlyAccess managed policy) to operate safely.

What Blocks Can Do

Blocks can help you with a variety of AWS tasks:

• Inspect Resources: Query EC2 instances, S3 buckets, RDS databases, Lambda functions, and more
• Monitor Logs: Retrieve and analyze CloudWatch logs to diagnose issues
• Deployment Assistance: Help plan and execute deployments via ECS, Lambda, or CloudFormation
• Cost Analysis: Review resource usage and suggest cost optimizations
• Security Review: Audit IAM roles, security groups, and access policies
• Infrastructure Troubleshooting: Diagnose connectivity, configuration, and performance issues

Setting Up AWS Integration

To connect AWS to Blocks:

1. Create a Dedicated IAM User

   In the AWS IAM Console, create a new IAM user dedicated to Blocks.

   We strongly recommend creating this user with minimal read-only permissions (e.g. the ReadOnlyAccess managed policy). Never use root account credentials or credentials with unrestricted access.

2. Generate Access Credentials

   Create an access key for the IAM user and copy the Access Key ID and Secret Access Key.

3. Enter Credentials in Blocks

   In the Blocks dashboard, go to Settings > AWS and enter:

   • AWS Access Key ID
   • AWS Secret Access Key

   AWS OIDC support coming soon — We’re working on federated identity support so you can connect without long-lived access keys.

Using AWS in Requests

Once connected, you can reference your AWS environment in any request:

@blocks list all running EC2 instances in us-east-1

@blocks check CloudWatch logs for the payment-service Lambda in the last hour

@blocks review the security groups attached to our production RDS instance

@blocks what's causing high memory usage on the web-server ECS task?

Session Context: Responding in the same thread continues the session, preserving context from previous queries. Starting a new comment or issue creates a fresh session.

Security Best Practices

• Follow Least Privilege: Grant only the permissions Blocks needs for your specific use cases
• Rotate Credentials: Regularly rotate access keys and update them in Settings > AWS
• Restrict by Region: Scope IAM policies to specific regions where possible
• Monitor Activity: Enable CloudTrail to audit all API calls made by Blocks in your account
• Use Separate Accounts: Consider using a dedicated AWS account for staging vs. production

Common Use Cases

Infrastructure Debugging

Ask Blocks to investigate issues in your environment:

@blocks the checkout service is returning 502 errors, check the ECS task logs and load balancer health

Deployment Review

Get help reviewing before applying changes:

@blocks review this CloudFormation template for any security or cost concerns before we deploy

Cost Optimization

Identify opportunities to reduce spend:

@blocks find underutilized EC2 instances and RDS databases in our staging environment

Best Practices

• Be Specific: Reference service names, regions, and resource IDs where possible
• Provide Context: Describe the expected behavior alongside what you’re observing
• Check Progress: Use the dashboard link to monitor Blocks’ work on your request
• Follow Up: Continue the conversation by mentioning @blocks with additional questions or clarifications

Next Steps

New to Blocks? Check out the Getting Started guide to learn the basics.

Learn more about:

• Plan Mode for collaborative planning before making infrastructure changes
• Skills for reusable AWS queries and workflows