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Amazon Opensearch Service

AWSOfficialPublished by AWS

  • Skill
  • Workflow
  • Cloud and DevOps
  • Apache-2.0
  • Low risk

From the author

Guides migration, provisioning, search, log-analytics, trace-analytics, and Agentic AI Assistant workflows for Amazon OpenSearch Service and Serverless across six capabilities — migration (Solr/ES/self-managed into AOS/AOSS, schema/query translation, sizing, cutover); provisioning (domain + AOSS lifecycle, upgrades, FGAC, monitoring); search (vector / semantic / hybrid / RAG with Bedrock); log-analytics (PPL, OSI, anomaly detection, Dashboards); trace-analytics (OTel spans, service maps, Data Prepper); ai-assistant (natural language data exploration, incident investigation, root cause analysis). Triggers on OpenSearch, AOS, AOSS, Elasticsearch, Solr, vector/k-NN/semantic/hybrid search, RAG, log analytics, PPL, trace analytics, ISM, FAISS, HNSW, Migration Assistant, UltraWarm, OR1, query my data, analyze logs, investigate errors, root cause analysis.
— the description by AWS

AutoGineer summary

Written by AutoGineer from the skill’s own files, not by the author

This skill provides a unified framework for interacting with Amazon OpenSearch Service (AOS) and OpenSearch Serverless (AOSS). It covers the full lifecycle of OpenSearch operations, including migration from legacy systems like Solr or Elasticsearch, infrastructure provisioning, advanced search implementation (including vector and RAG), and observability through log and trace analytics. It also features an Agentic AI Assistant for natural language data exploration and incident investigation, ensuring users can navigate complex cluster management and data analysis tasks without manual query crafting.

What it does

  • Guides migration workflows from Solr, Elasticsearch, or self-managed OpenSearch to AOS/AOSS.
  • Assists with provisioning, lifecycle management, and monitoring of domains and collections.
  • Facilitates implementation of vector, semantic, and hybrid search, including RAG with Bedrock.
  • Supports log and trace analytics using PPL, OpenTelemetry, and anomaly detection.
  • Provides an Agentic AI Assistant for natural language querying and automated incident root cause analysis.
  • Enforces operational best practices for sharding, storage tiering, and security configurations.

When to use it

  • When planning a migration from legacy search engines to Amazon OpenSearch Service.
  • When setting up or optimizing search capabilities, including vector search and RAG.
  • When troubleshooting cluster health, performance, or shard allocation issues.
  • When performing log or trace analysis to investigate system incidents.
  • When you need to generate optimized PPL or DSL queries using natural language.

Advantages

  • Centralizes complex operational knowledge across six distinct OpenSearch capabilities.
  • Reduces manual query complexity by leveraging the Agentic AI Assistant.
  • Provides clear, actionable guidance on production failure modes and migration blockers.
  • Standardizes interactions through consistent CLI and data-plane patterns.
  • Promotes architectural best practices for scaling and cost-effective storage tiering.

Usage examples

“How do I migrate my existing Solr index to Amazon OpenSearch Service?”
The agent identifies the migration capability, explains that Solr to OpenSearch is a refactor migration, and guides you through using the Migration Assistant for data backfill.
“Why is my cluster status yellow and how can I fix it?”
The agent uses the AI Assistant capability to analyze cluster health, check shard allocation, and provide specific commands or steps to resolve unassigned shards.
“Help me set up a RAG pipeline using Bedrock and my OpenSearch domain.”
The agent routes to the search capability, providing instructions on configuring Bedrock connectors and vector index mappings for semantic retrieval.
“Find the root cause of the 503 errors in my application logs from the last hour.”
The agent utilizes the AI Assistant to query logs, perform time-series analysis, and correlate findings to identify the likely root cause of the errors.

Install

  1. Download the skill as a ZIP:

    https://mp-staging.autogineer.com/agent-skills/aws/amazon-opensearch-service/download
  2. Unzip it into the cross-client skills folder of your project:

    mkdir -p .agents/skills && unzip amazon-opensearch-service.zip -d .agents/skills

Documentation by AWS

Amazon OpenSearch Service — the unified skill

This skill answers anything about Amazon OpenSearch Service or Serverless across six 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, its call_aws tool offers a streamlined alternative — but every operation in this skill MUST work via the AWS CLI alone. Data-plane HTTP calls against AOS / AOSS use awscurl for SigV4-signed requests; this works in both contexts.

Step 0: detect the capability — first thing you do

Pick one of the six 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.

CapabilityEntry-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
ai-assistant — Agentic AI Assistant: auto-discovers indices, generates optimized PPL/DSL queries, summarizes results, and investigates incidents end-to-end. No manual query crafting needed.references/ai-assistant.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 the current_time tool (returns ISO 8601 in UTC). Read the skill version from this file's frontmatter version: 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.

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 big5 workload + your own judgment list.

Guardrail — where this skill's own files live (MCP vs local install)

This skill can be loaded two ways, and they resolve the skill's own bundled files from different places. Determine how the skill was loaded before reading a reference or running a script:

  • Loaded through the AWS MCP server's retrieve_skill tool: The skill is not installed on the local filesystem. You MUST fetch each reference or script via retrieve_skill with the file parameter (e.g. file="references/architecture.md" or file="scripts/deploy.py"), and run the script from the returned content. Do NOT file_read these paths locally — they do not exist on disk.

  • Installed locally (e.g. .kiro/skills/your-skill/ or ~/.claude/skills/your-skill/): Read and run files from the local skill directory using relative paths.

This distinction applies only to the skill's own packaged files. User data and session artifacts are always read from and written to the user's working directory. Never fetch or write customer data through retrieve_skill.

Files

references/search-evaluation-guide.md

Search Quality Evaluation Guide

Data-driven evaluation that runs real queries against the live index, computes quantitative metrics, and diagnoses issues with actionable recommendations.

When to Evaluate

Offer evaluation after the search pipeline is configured and working:

"Would you like to evaluate the search quality? I can run test queries, measure relevance metrics, and suggest improvements."

Evaluation Workflow

Step 1: Generate Test Queries

Ask the user to provide test queries. Assign a capability to each query based on its form:

CapabilityHow to detectExample
exactMatches a known title/name in the dataThe Matrix
structuredContains field:value syntaxgenres:Drama
combinedFree text + field:valuespace adventure genres:Sci-Fi
autocompleteShort prefix (< 5 chars or partial word)The Ma
fuzzyContains apparent misspellingTeh Matrx
semanticNatural language describing a conceptmovies about redemption in prison
Step 2: Run Queries

Run all test queries through the search pipeline and collect top-k results for each.

Step 3: Judge Relevance

For each query, review the returned documents and assign a relevance grade to each query-document pair. Grade every document in the top-k results — do not skip any.

Grading scale:

GradeLabelCriteria
3PerfectThe document is exactly what a user searching this query would want. For exact queries, the title matches. For semantic queries, the document directly addresses the concept.
2RelevantThe document is clearly useful and related to the query intent, but is not the ideal result.
1MarginalThe document shares a topic or keyword with the query but does not satisfy the search intent.
0IrrelevantThe document has no meaningful connection to the query.

Judgment prompt — for each query-document pair, evaluate:

  1. Intent match: What is the user trying to find with this query? Does this document satisfy that intent?

  2. Content relevance: How well does the document's content relate to the query?

  3. Would a real user click this? If yes, grade >= 2. If maybe, grade 1. If no, grade 0.

Step 4: Compute Metrics

Three metrics are computed per query per method, all at cutoff k:

MetricFormulaWhat it measures
nDCG@kNormalized Discounted Cumulative GainRanking quality — are the best docs at the top?
P@kPrecision at kWhat fraction of top-k results are relevant?
MRRMean Reciprocal RankHow quickly does the first relevant result appear?
Target Thresholds
MetricGood (>= )Acceptable (>=)Poor (<)
Mean nDCG@k0.700.500.30
Mean P@k0.600.400.20
Mean MRR0.700.500.20
Step 5: Diagnose Issues

Apply diagnostic rules comparing across methods:

Rule 1: All methods fail (nDCG < 0.3 for every method)
  • Severity: HIGH

  • Meaning: No retrieval strategy can find relevant documents for this query

  • Fix: Check field mappings, analyzers, or upgrade embedding model

Rule 2: Pairwise method gaps
  • Severity: MEDIUM

  • Triggers when: A vector method fails (nDCG < 0.3) while a lexical method succeeds (nDCG > 0.5), or vice versa

  • Fix: Upgrade embedding model, or add proper text analyzers/boosting

Rule 3: Hybrid worse than single signals
  • Severity: MEDIUM/LOW

  • Triggers when: A hybrid method's nDCG is > 0.15 below the best non-hybrid method

  • Fix: Adjust hybrid weights, or use query-type-aware routing

Rule 4: Irrelevant docs in top-2
  • Severity: MEDIUM

  • Triggers when: An irrelevant document (grade 0) appears in positions 1-2 and nDCG < 0.8

  • Fix: Reduce field boosts, restructure query, or upgrade model

Rule 5: Missed relevant documents
  • Severity: LOW

  • Triggers when: High-relevance documents (grade >= 2) don't appear in any method's top-k

  • Fix: Embed more fields, use a higher-capacity model

Finding Tags

TagWhat it targetsExample fix
[INDEX_MAPPING]Field types, analyzers, .keyword sub-fieldsAdd .keyword to filterable fields
[EMBEDDING_FIELDS]Which fields are embeddedConcatenate title + genres before embedding
[MODEL_SELECTION]Embedding model quality/typeSwitch from sparse to dense, or upgrade model size
[SEARCH_PIPELINE]Hybrid weights, normalizationShift from 0.8/0.2 to 0.5/0.5 balanced
[QUERY_TUNING]Field boosts, fuzziness, filter placementMove filters to bool.filter to avoid score pollution

Completion Criteria

The evaluation passes if any of:

  • Mean nDCG@k across all methods > 0.7

  • All findings are LOW severity only

  • No HIGH severity findings and setup matches the use case

After Evaluation

Present results, then offer:

  1. Restart with improvements — Apply recommended fixes and rebuild the search setup

  2. Deploy as-is — Current configuration is acceptable

  3. Done for now — Keep experimenting

If HIGH severity findings exist, recommend option 1 and explain the specific fix.

Requirements and compatibility

Works with: Claude Code, Claude apps, OpenAI Codex, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Kiro, OpenCode, Goose, Amp, Roo Code, JetBrains Junie, Factory Droid, Devin (ex-Windsurf), Mistral Vibe, OpenHands, Letta

“Works with” means the tool reads the open Agent Skills format; a skill written for one tool may use features others lack.

Needs: Needs an MCP server

Security

What our scanner noticed· Low risk

  • Instructions that use the network

A static scan is not a guarantee. Skills are third-party content: review a skill before you let an agent use it.

Attribution and licence

Published by
AWS
Publisher
AWS (Official)
Source
aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws · plugins/aws-data-analytics/skills/amazon-opensearch-service · commit 0a218f8
Licence
Apache License 2.0 (redistribution allowed)
  • LICENSE (added by AutoGineer from LICENSE)
  • NOTICE (added by AutoGineer from NOTICE)
  • ATTRIBUTION.md (written by AutoGineer)
Synced
Also distributed in
aws/agent-toolkit-for-aws

AutoGineer is not affiliated with or endorsed by AWS.

Download ZIP

The ZIP holds the skill’s files, its licence files and an ATTRIBUTION.md. Download amazon-opensearch-service.zip