AWS Deploy (S3 + CloudFront)

Deploy any static site directory to AWS using S3 for storage and CloudFront for HTTPS delivery. No size limit — deploy full-resolution scroll-sequence sites, large asset directories, or anything that exceeds Vercel's 4.5MB compressed payload limit.

When to use

• User explicitly requests AWS hosting
• Site assets exceed Vercel's 4.5MB compressed limit (e.g., scroll-sequence sites with 200+ full-res frames)
• User wants a persistent deployment with easy teardown via CloudFormation
• User already has AWS credentials configured

For quick deploys without AWS credentials, use vercel-deploy instead.

Prerequisites

1. AWS CLI — the deploy script auto-installs via Homebrew (macOS) or the official installer (Linux) if missing
2. AWS credentials — one of:

- aws configure (stores in ~/.aws/credentials) - Environment variables: AWSACCESSKEYID + AWSSECRETACCESSKEY - AWS SSO: aws sso login

Workflow

1. Identify the directory

The user provides a path to a directory containing static files. If they don't specify one, look for the most recently generated project (e.g., /tmp/landing-page/, or whatever the upstream skill produced).

The directory must contain an index.html at the root. If there's a single .html file with a different name, the deploy script renames it automatically.

2. Deploy

Run the deploy script:

bash <skill-path>/scripts/deploy.sh <directory> [--region <region>]

• Default region: us-east-1 (override with --region or AWS_REGION env var)
• First deploy creates a CloudFormation stack (takes 3-5 minutes for CloudFront distribution)
• Subsequent deploys to the same directory name reuse the existing stack (just syncs files, ~10 seconds)

The script:

• Creates a CloudFormation stack named site-craft-<directory-name> with S3 bucket, CloudFront distribution, and OAC
• Syncs the directory contents to S3
• Invalidates the CloudFront cache
• Returns JSON with previewUrl, distributionId, bucketName, stackName, region

3. Present results

Tell the user:

Your site is live on AWS!

Preview URL: https://<id>.cloudfront.net
Stack:       site-craft-<name>
Region:      us-east-1

First-time deploys take 3-5 minutes (CloudFront distribution provisioning).
Subsequent deploys update in ~10 seconds + cache invalidation time.

4. Cleanup

To tear down all resources for a deployment, empty the bucket first (CloudFormation can't delete a non-empty S3 bucket), then delete the stack.

Find the bucket name from the stack outputs:

aws cloudformation describe-stacks --stack-name site-craft-<name> --region us-east-1 \
  --query 'Stacks[0].Outputs[?OutputKey==`BucketName`].OutputValue' --output text

Then empty and delete:

aws s3 rm s3://<bucket-name> --recursive --region us-east-1
aws cloudformation delete-stack --stack-name site-craft-<name> --region us-east-1

This deletes the S3 bucket, CloudFront distribution, and all associated resources.

First-time setup

On the very first deploy, the script:

1. Creates a CloudFormation stack with 4 resources (S3 bucket, CloudFront distribution, OAC, bucket policy)
2. Waits for CloudFront distribution provisioning (~3-5 minutes)
3. Uploads content and invalidates cache

Subsequent deploys to the same site skip stack creation and just sync files.

Minimal IAM policy

For users who want to scope down permissions, this is the minimum policy needed:

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "cloudformation:CreateStack",
        "cloudformation:DeleteStack",
        "cloudformation:DescribeStacks",
        "cloudformation:DescribeStackEvents"
      ],
      "Resource": "arn:aws:cloudformation:*:*:stack/site-craft-*/*"
    },
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "s3:CreateBucket",
        "s3:DeleteBucket",
        "s3:PutBucketPolicy",
        "s3:DeleteBucketPolicy",
        "s3:PutBucketEncryption",
        "s3:PutBucketPublicAccessBlock",
        "s3:GetBucketPolicy",
        "s3:PutObject",
        "s3:DeleteObject",
        "s3:ListBucket"
      ],
      "Resource": [
        "arn:aws:s3:::site-craft-*",
        "arn:aws:s3:::site-craft-*/*"
      ]
    },
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "cloudfront:CreateDistribution",
        "cloudfront:DeleteDistribution",
        "cloudfront:GetDistribution",
        "cloudfront:UpdateDistribution",
        "cloudfront:CreateInvalidation",
        "cloudfront:CreateOriginAccessControl",
        "cloudfront:DeleteOriginAccessControl",
        "cloudfront:GetOriginAccessControl",
        "cloudfront:TagResource"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    }
  ]
}