Appconfig Diagnostics

AWS AppConfig Diagnostics

When to use

Any AppConfig investigation — configuration deployments, feature flags, validation errors, deployment strategies, extensions, or integration with Lambda/ECS/EC2.

Investigation workflow

Step 1 — Collect and triage

aws appconfig list-applications
aws appconfig list-environments --application-id 
aws appconfig list-configuration-profiles --application-id 
aws appconfig list-deployments --application-id  --environment-id 
aws appconfig get-deployment --application-id  --environment-id  --deployment-number 

Step 2 — Deep dive

aws appconfig list-deployment-strategies
aws appconfig list-hosted-configuration-versions --application-id  --configuration-profile-id 
aws appconfig list-extensions
aws appconfig list-extension-associations --resource-identifier 
aws cloudtrail lookup-events --lookup-attributes AttributeKey=EventSource,AttributeValue=appconfig.amazonaws.com

Step 3 — Detailed (low-confidence)

aws cloudwatch get-metric-statistics --namespace AWS/AppConfig --metric-name DeploymentComplete ...
aws logs filter-log-events --log-group-name  --filter-pattern "AppConfig"

Tool quick reference

| Tool / API | When to use | |------------|-------------| | list-applications | List all AppConfig applications | | list-environments | List environments for an application | | list-configuration-profiles | List config profiles | | get-deployment | Get deployment status and details | | list-deployment-strategies | View deployment strategies | | get-hosted-configuration-version | Retrieve configuration content | | list-extensions | List AppConfig extensions |

Gotchas

• Deployment strategies control rollout speed — Linear, Exponential, AllAtOnce have very different blast radii
• Configuration validators (JSON Schema or Lambda) run BEFORE deployment starts — failures block deployment
• AppConfig agent caches configurations locally — cache TTL affects how fast changes propagate
• Feature flags are a specific configuration type with built-in schema validation
• Hosted configuration has a 1MB size limit per version
• Extensions run at specific action points (PRECREATEHOSTEDCONFIGURATIONVERSION, ONDEPLOYMENTSTART, etc.)
• Rollback triggers use CloudWatch alarms — alarm must be in ALARM state to trigger rollback

Anti-hallucination rules

1. Always cite specific deployment status, error messages, or CloudTrail events as evidence
2. Deployment strategies are immutable after creation — you cannot modify an existing strategy
3. AppConfig is NOT the same as SSM Parameter Store — they are separate services with different APIs
4. Feature flags require the AWS.AppConfig.FeatureFlags configuration type
5. Never assume a deployment failed without checking the actual deployment state
6. Spend no more than 2 minutes on any single hypothesis

14 runbooks

| Category | IDs | Covers | |----------|-----|--------| | A — Application/Environment | A1-A2 | Application creation, environment configuration | | B — Configuration Profiles | B1-B2 | Profile creation, validation errors | | C — Deployments | C1-C3 | Deployment failures, strategy issues, rollback | | D — Feature Flags | D1-D2 | Flag configuration, toggle issues | | E — Extensions | E1-E2 | Extension failures, association issues | | F — Integration | F1-F2 | Lambda extension, ECS agent | | Z — Catch-All | Z1 | General troubleshooting |

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: aws-samples
• Source: aws-samples/sample-ai-agent-skills
• License: MIT-0

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.