Skip to content

fix(architect): recommend AgentCore over classic Bedrock Agents #263

New issue

Have a question about this project? Sign up for a free GitHub account to open an issue and contact its maintainers and the community.

Sign up for GitHub

By clicking “Sign up for GitHub”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy statement. We’ll occasionally send you account related emails.

Already on GitHub? Sign in to your account

Open
herosjourney wants to merge 8 commits into
base: main
Choose a base branch
from
+24 −17
Open

fix(architect): recommend AgentCore over classic Bedrock Agents #263

Show file tree
Hide file tree
Changes from all commits
Commits
Show all changes
8 commits
Select commit Hold shift + click to select a range
99e9adf
fix(architect): recommend AgentCore over classic Bedrock Agents
Sep 2, 2026
13db012
Merge branch 'main' into fix/strands-classic-bedrock-agents
herosjourney Sep 3, 2026
00837ad
fix(architect): close A2A/AgentCore multi-agent gap flagged in review
Sep 3, 2026
127a717
Merge branch 'main' into fix/strands-classic-bedrock-agents
herosjourney Sep 4, 2026
98e513e
Merge branch 'main' into fix/strands-classic-bedrock-agents
herosjourney Sep 10, 2026
589894d
Merge branch 'main' into fix/strands-classic-bedrock-agents
herosjourney Sep 17, 2026
35b5c41
Merge remote-tracking branch 'upstream/main' into fix/strands-classic…
Sep 17, 2026
8b14169
docs(architect): clarify AgentCore deployment ownership
Sep 17, 2026
File filter

Filter by extension

Filter by extension
Conversations
Failed to load comments.
Loading
Jump to
Jump to file
Failed to load files.
Loading
Diff view
Diff view
10 changes: 5 additions & 5 deletions ...ugins/aws-startup-advisor/skills/architect-for-startups/references/agentcore.md
View file
Open in desktop
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -42,11 +42,11 @@ Month 6+: Add Memory, Gateway, Identity as specific needs emerge

### Multi-Agent: Don't Go There Early

| Team size | Agent architecture | Why |
| ------------- | ------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 1-3 engineers | Single agent, direct Bedrock calls | You can't debug multi-agent orchestration AND build product features |
| 4-8 engineers | One supervisor + 2-3 specialist agents max | Complexity grows exponentially with agent count |
| 8+ engineers | Multi-agent with A2A or Bedrock Multi-Agent | You have the team to own the operational complexity |
| Team size | Agent architecture | Why |
| ------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| 1-3 engineers | Single agent, direct Bedrock calls | You can't debug multi-agent orchestration AND build product features |
| 4-8 engineers | One supervisor + 2-3 specialist agents max | Complexity grows exponentially with agent count |
| 8+ engineers | Multi-agent via Strands (A2A for cross-org, or a Strands supervisor on AgentCore Runtime) | You have the team to own the operational complexity — classic Bedrock Agents' built-in multi-agent collaboration is in maintenance mode and closed to new customers as of 2026-07-30 |

### PoC to Production Pitfall

Expand Down
31 changes: 19 additions & 12 deletions ...s/aws-startup-advisor/skills/architect-for-startups/references/strands-agent.md
View file
Open in desktop
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -2,12 +2,12 @@

## When to Use Strands (vs. Alternatives)

| Situation | Recommendation | Why |
| -------------------------------------------- | -------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Building first AI agent on AWS | **Strands** | Thinnest abstraction, least vendor lock-in, direct Bedrock integration |
| Already invested in LangChain/LangGraph | Stay on LangChain | Migration cost isn't worth it unless you're hitting LangChain-specific pain |
| Need managed multi-agent orchestration | Bedrock Agents | If you don't want to manage containers and agent routing yourself |
| Simple single-call LLM feature (no tool use) | Direct `InvokeModel` | Strands adds overhead you don't need for prompt-in/text-out |
| Situation | Recommendation | Why |
| -------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Building first AI agent on AWS | **Strands** | Thinnest abstraction, least vendor lock-in, direct Bedrock integration |
| Already invested in LangChain/LangGraph | Stay on LangChain | Migration cost isn't worth it unless you're hitting LangChain-specific pain |
| Need multi-agent orchestration | Strands multi-agent primitives (Agents-as-Tools, Swarms, Graphs, or A2A for cross-org) on AgentCore Runtime | AgentCore manages runtime infrastructure and can provide memory/gateway/identity, but you still own routing via Strands. Direct code deployment avoids image management; with container deployment, you own image maintenance. Classic Bedrock Agents' built-in collaboration is in maintenance mode and closed to new customers as of July 30, 2026. |
| Simple single-call LLM feature (no tool use) | Direct `InvokeModel` | Strands adds overhead you don't need for prompt-in/text-out |

## TypeScript vs Python: Startup Perspective

Expand Down Expand Up @@ -42,15 +42,22 @@ Memory modes ranked by startup relevance:

**Cost of premature LTM**: Memory extraction runs additional model calls per session. At 1000 sessions/day, that's meaningful token spend for personalization most early users won't notice.

## Deployment: The Container Gotcha (TypeScript)
## Deployment: Direct Code vs. Containers (TypeScript)

TypeScript agents REQUIRE containerized deployment (`--deployment-type container`). This means:
AgentCore Runtime supports [direct code deployment for Node.js, including compiled
TypeScript](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/bedrock-agentcore/latest/devguide/runtime-get-started-code-deploy-node.html).
Prefer it when the supported runtime fits; it avoids owning a container image.

- ECR image build in your CI/CD pipeline
- Container image maintenance (base image updates, dependency patches)
- Slightly higher cold-start than Python agents
Choose container deployment when you need a custom runtime, native dependencies,
or image-level control. Under the [container shared-responsibility model](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/bedrock-agentcore/latest/devguide/runtime-get-started-code-deploy.html),
you own:

**If you're deploying to Lambda for cost reasons (scale-to-zero)**: Use Python Strands agents — they work with Lambda's native runtime. TypeScript agents need Lambda container image support (slower cold starts, 10GB image limit).
- ECR image builds and CI/CD
- Base-image and dependency patching
- Rebuilding and redeploying images for security updates

AgentCore manages the runtime infrastructure in either mode; it does not take over
your Strands supervisor/routing logic.

## Evaluation: Ship Evals from Day One (But Cheaply)

Expand Down
Loading