fix(architect): recommend AgentCore over classic Bedrock Agents

[herosjourney]

Problem

architect-for-startups/references/strands-agent.md (the Strands "When to Use" decision guide) recommends classic Bedrock Agents for the "Need managed multi-agent orchestration" case. Classic Bedrock Agents (bedrock-agent) entered maintenance mode and closed to new customers on 2026-07-30 (maintenance-mode doc, service availability announcement). That date is already past, so a startup following this guide today literally cannot adopt the service as a new customer — the guide steers new builders straight into a dead end.

This is also internally inconsistent: the gcp-to-aws migration skill already states "Never recommend classic Bedrock Agents (bedrock-agent) as a migration target ... it is in maintenance mode and closed to new customers." The architect guide was the last remaining place in the plugin still pointing new builders at the deprecated service.

Fix

advisor/plugins/aws-startup-advisor/skills/architect-for-startups/references/strands-agent.md — the "Need managed multi-agent orchestration" row now recommends AgentCore (managed runtime/memory/gateway without managing containers or agent routing yourself), with an inline note that classic Bedrock Agents is in maintenance mode and closed to new customers as of 2026-07-30. This brings the architect guide in line with both the gcp-to-aws skill and current AWS guidance.

Scope

Doc-only change to a single reference file. No code, engine, or behavior touched. Confirmed via grep that no other place in the plugin recommends classic Bedrock Agents as a target — remaining mentions are either the modern bedrock-agentcore service, doc-URL references in test files, or migration-skill guidance that explicitly says never to target it. Verbatim knowledge-base article snapshots that mention Bedrock Agents were intentionally left untouched (they are legally-clean copies of aws.amazon.com content, not recommendations the plugin makes).

Verification

Documentation-only change (single reference file). Maintenance-mode status verified against the official AWS docs linked above (also cross-checked via the AWS Knowledge MCP server).

Type of Change

• Bug fix
• New plugin/power/tool
• Enhancement to existing content
• Documentation update
• Guardrail/CI update

Team Folder

• advisor/
• migrate/
• Other

Checklist

• I have read the CONTRIBUTING.md guidelines
• My changes do not include hardcoded secrets, credentials, or internal-only content
• My changes are scoped to my team's folder only

[ayn-builds]

Change is right and well sourced - the date lines up with what the repo already says at ai-openai-to-bedrock.md:296-297. One inline note on the "Why" cell, and one thing the grep couldn't have found.

references/agentcore.md:49, right next door in the same skill, still says:

| 8+ engineers | Multi-agent with A2A or Bedrock Multi-Agent | You have the team to own the operational complexity |

That's why it slipped past the sweep:

grep -c "bedrock-agent\|Bedrock Agents" references/agentcore.md  ->  0

It's "Bedrock **Multi-**Agent," so neither pattern hits. I re-ran the search a few other ways to see if there were more, and this looks like the only one - everything else is the knowledge-base article snapshots you already carved out, plus a prompt-library line that mentions Bedrock Agents as an example rather than a recommendation. So it's a one-liner.

Fair to say the phrasing is ambiguous, and you could read it as "multi-agent on Bedrock" in general. But multi-agent collaboration is a classic Bedrock Agents feature, there's no product actually called that, and it's sitting in the recommendation column - so it points at the same closed door. Since both files are listed together in SKILL.md:93,95, someone loading this skill gets the fixed row and the stale one in one go.

The bigger question behind both notes: with classic Bedrock Agents off the table, the guide doesn't have a managed-orchestration answer anymore. Might be worth picking one (A2A, or a Strands supervisor on AgentCore, with the team owning routing) and stating it in both files rather than leaving the gap.

[ayn-builds]

Agree with swapping the recommendation, but I think the "Why" cell came along for the ride. The old row was:

| Need managed multi-agent orchestration | Bedrock Agents | If you don't want to manage containers and agent routing yourself |

Both of those were true of classic Bedrock Agents. Neither is really true of AgentCore, so changing the subject and keeping the reason ends up promising more than AgentCore does.

On containers: this same file says TypeScript agents require --deployment-type container, with ECR builds in CI/CD and image maintenance (:45-53), and line 14 tells startups to default to TypeScript. So the default path does involve managing containers. agentcore.md:59 also notes Runtime is ECS/Fargate underneath.

On routing: agentcore.md:13 pitches AgentCore for "multiple agents needing shared memory/policy," and :49 says the multi-agent options are A2A or Bedrock Multi-Agent. You still write the supervisor either way.

Which leaves the Situation column a bit stranded - it says "Need managed multi-agent orchestration," and with classic Bedrock Agents gone there isn't a managed option anymore. Probably better to say that outright than to imply AgentCore covers it:

| Need multi-agent orchestration | **Strands supervisor on AgentCore** | AgentCore gives you
managed memory, gateway and identity plus shared session state across agents - you still own the
supervisor and routing logic (A2A or a Strands supervisor agent). Classic Bedrock Agents, which
did manage routing for you, is in maintenance mode and closed to new customers as of July 30,
2026. Note TypeScript agents deploy as containers (see "The Container Gotcha" below). |

Tiny thing: you've got 2026-07-30 here, elsewhere the repo writes "July 30, 2026" (ai-openai-to-bedrock.md:297).

[herosjourney]

Good catch, thanks. Pushed a follow-up commit that:

• Fixes agentcore.md:49 — no longer says "Bedrock Multi-Agent"; the 8+ engineers row now points at Strands multi-agent primitives (Agents-as-Tools/Swarms/Graphs, or A2A for cross-org) on AgentCore Runtime, with an explicit note that classic Bedrock Agents' built-in multi-agent collaboration is in maintenance mode and closed to new customers as of 2026-07-30.
• Answers the bigger question in strands-agent.md too — the "Need managed multi-agent orchestration" row now names the concrete answer (Strands multi-agent primitives on AgentCore Runtime, AgentCore providing the managed runtime/memory/gateway, Strands owning the routing logic) instead of leaving a gap.

Both rows now say the same thing so there's no more inconsistency between the two files that load together per SKILL.md:93,95.