lamvms

name	lamvms
description	AWS Lambda MicroVMs deployment tool - deploy, run, and manage MicroVM images and instances
license	MIT
compatibility	["claude","codex","agents"]
allowed_tools	["Bash","Read"]

lamvms Skill for LLM Agents

Overview

lamvms is a deployment and lifecycle management tool for AWS Lambda MicroVMs, inspired by fujiwara/lambroll. It manages two lifecycles:

• MicroVM image lifecycle: deploy, wait, rollback, delete
• MicroVM instance lifecycle: run, suspend, resume, terminate, shell, curl

Configuration files are API payloads as-is: microvm.jsonnet/microvm.json maps directly to the CreateMicrovmImage request, and run.jsonnet/run.json maps directly to the RunMicrovm request. To understand what a field in either file does, read the corresponding API doc rather than guessing.

Official documentation

• Service overview: https://aws.amazon.com/lambda/lambda-microvms/
• API reference (all actions and data types, including CreateMicrovmImage and RunMicrovm): https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lambda/latest/microvm-api/

Common workflows

Check current state before making changes

# Show differences between local definition and the deployed image
lamvms diff --microvm microvm.jsonnet

# Show differences and exit with code 2 if there are any (useful for scripting)
lamvms diff --microvm microvm.jsonnet --exit-code

Deploy an image

lamvms deploy --microvm microvm.jsonnet

This creates a zip archive from the source directory, uploads it to S3, creates or updates the MicroVM image, and waits for the build to finish. Use --dry-run to preview without making changes, and --keep-versions N to prune old ACTIVE+SUCCESSFUL versions after a successful deploy.

Run and connect to a MicroVM instance

lamvms run --microvm microvm.jsonnet
lamvms shell --microvm microvm.jsonnet
lamvms curl /health --microvm microvm.jsonnet

run reads run.jsonnet/run.json next to the microvm definition (or the current directory) if --run-def is not given; CLI flags override values from that file. curl requires the request path as the first positional argument, followed by any curl flags, e.g. lamvms curl /health -X POST -d '{"key":"value"}'.

Roll back or delete an image

# Deactivate the latest active version, falling back to the previous one
lamvms rollback --microvm microvm.jsonnet

# Delete the image entirely
lamvms delete --microvm microvm.jsonnet

Inspect instances and logs

# Interactively select a running instance if no ID is given
lamvms suspend
lamvms resume
lamvms terminate

# Tail CloudWatch logs for the image (delegates to `aws logs tail`)
lamvms logs --microvm microvm.jsonnet --follow

Configuration file reference

• microvm.jsonnet / microvm.json: MicroVM image definition (CreateMicrovmImage payload). Auto-discovered in the current directory if --microvm is omitted.
• run.jsonnet / run.json: MicroVM run configuration (RunMicrovm payload, minus ImageIdentifier which is resolved automatically). If not found, run starts the MicroVM with only ImageIdentifier.
• .microvmignore: zip archive exclusion patterns (like .gitignore).

Jsonnet native functions available in definition files: std.native('env')('NAME', 'default'), std.native('must_env')('NAME'), std.native('caller_identity')() (returns {Account, Arn, UserID}). The equivalent Go template functions ({{ env "NAME" "default" }}, {{ must_env "NAME" }}, {{ (caller_identity).Account }}) are available in .json files.

Useful global flags

• --microvm <path>: path to the microvm definition file (also LAMVMS_MICROVM)
• --log-level debug: verbose logging for troubleshooting
• --profile / --region / --endpoint: AWS credential and endpoint overrides
• --envfile <path>: load environment variables from a file before evaluating definitions

Run lamvms <command> --help for the full flag reference of any subcommand.