aws-ami-builder

SKILL.md

Build custom Amazon Machine Images with Packer's amazon-ebs builder.

Automates AMI creation from source AMIs using HCL templates with provisioners for customization (shell scripts, file uploads, configuration management)

Supports multi-region AMI distribution via ami_regions and flexible source AMI filtering by name, owner, and virtualization type

Authenticates via environment variables, AWS credentials file, or IAM instance profiles; includes validation and build commands for template management

Common use cases include OS patching, software pre-installation, and hardened base image creation; builds typically take 10–30 minutes and incur AWS costs for compute and storage

AWS AMI Builder

Build Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) using Packer's amazon-ebs builder.

Reference: Amazon EBS Builder

Note: Building AMIs incurs AWS costs (EC2 instances, EBS storage, data transfer). Builds typically take 10-30 minutes depending on provisioning complexity.

Basic AMI Template

packer {
  required_plugins {
    amazon = {
      source  = "github.com/hashicorp/amazon"
      version = "~> 1.3"
    }
  }
}