• A fully managed service that transforms how AI agents discover, access, and utilize tools by providing a centralized, secure gateway for tool management and execution across your organization.

Overview

• The Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Gateway acts as a single point of entry for AI agents to discover and use approved tools and APIs. It streamlines tool management by centralizing authentication, monitoring, and access control for all agent interactions. This gateway enables consistent governance and security while maintaining development flexibility across teams and applications.

Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Gateway Features

• Centralized Tool Management
  • The Gateway provides a unified catalog where teams can register, version, and manage all tools available to AI agents. It supports automatic tool discovery, making new capabilities immediately available to authorized agents. The system maintains a comprehensive audit trail of all tool registrations, updates, and usage across the organization.
• Secure Access Control
  • Implement fine-grained access policies to control which agents can use specific tools and under what conditions. The Gateway integrates with AWS IAM for authentication and authorization, ensuring only approved agents access sensitive tools. It supports role-based access control and can enforce usage limits and rate limiting per agent or tool.
• Unified Monitoring and Analytics
  • Gain visibility into tool usage patterns, performance metrics, and error rates across all agent interactions. The Gateway provides centralized logging for all tool requests and responses, enabling comprehensive monitoring and troubleshooting. It offers built-in analytics to identify popular tools, track performance trends, and optimize resource allocation.
• Enterprise Governance
  • Establish consistent governance policies for tool usage, data handling, and compliance requirements across all AI agents. The Gateway enforces organizational policies around data privacy, security standards, and operational guidelines. It supports compliance frameworks by providing detailed audit logs and usage reports for regulatory requirements.

Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Gateway Use Cases

• Enterprise Tool Standardization
  • Large organizations can use the Gateway to standardize tool usage across multiple teams and projects. It ensures consistency in how tools are accessed, authenticated, and monitored, reducing duplication and improving security. This approach enables centralized management of shared resources while maintaining team autonomy for development.
• Multi-Agent Orchestration
  • Coordinate tool usage across multiple AI agents working together on complex workflows. The Gateway manages tool access and contention when multiple agents need to use the same resources simultaneously. It ensures proper sequencing and coordination for multi-agent systems performing collaborative tasks.
• Compliance and Audit Readiness
  • Meet regulatory requirements by maintaining comprehensive audit trails of all AI agent tool interactions. The Gateway provides detailed records of which agents accessed which tools, when, and with what results. This capability is essential for industries with strict compliance requirements like healthcare, finance, and government.
• Developer Productivity
  • Accelerate AI agent development by providing a self-service portal for tool discovery and integration. Developers can quickly find and use approved tools without worrying about authentication, rate limiting, or monitoring implementation. The Gateway reduces integration time and ensures consistent implementation patterns across teams.

Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Gateway Implementation

• Gateway Setup and Configuration
  • Create and configure a Gateway instance through the AWS Management Console, AWS CLI, or infrastructure as code tools like AWS CloudFormation. Define global settings for authentication, logging, and monitoring during initial setup. Configure network access policies to control where the Gateway can be accessed from and which endpoints it can connect to.
• Tool Registration and Management
  • Register tools with the Gateway by providing tool specifications, authentication requirements, and usage policies. Each tool receives a unique identifier and versioning support for managing updates and deprecations. Configure tool-specific settings like rate limits, timeout values, and error handling behavior during registration.
• Access Policy Configuration
  • Define granular access policies specifying which agents can use which tools and under what conditions. Policies can be based on agent identity, tool type, time of day, or other contextual factors. Implement hierarchical policy structures to manage access at organizational, team, and individual levels with appropriate inheritance and overrides.
• Integration with Existing Systems
  • Connect the Gateway to existing identity providers, monitoring systems, and compliance tools already in use within your organization. The Gateway supports integration with AWS services and third-party systems through standard protocols and APIs. Configure connectors for existing tool registries, authentication systems, and logging platforms.

Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Gateway Security

• Authentication and Authorization
  • The Gateway supports multiple authentication methods including IAM roles, API keys, and OAuth tokens for agent identity verification. It validates every tool request against configured authorization policies before allowing access. All authentication events are logged for security monitoring and incident response purposes.
• Data Protection
  • All data passing through the Gateway is encrypted in transit using TLS 1.2 or higher. Sensitive tool credentials are stored securely using AWS Key Management Service (KMS). The Gateway never stores tool response data unless explicitly configured for caching or debugging purposes.
• Network Security
  • Deploy the Gateway within your Amazon VPC for private network access to internal tools and services. Configure security groups and network ACLs to restrict inbound and outbound traffic to authorized sources only. Use AWS PrivateLink for secure connectivity between the Gateway and your tools without exposing them to the public internet.
• Compliance and Audit
  • The Gateway maintains comprehensive audit logs of all authentication attempts, tool requests, and policy evaluations. These logs can be integrated with AWS CloudTrail, Amazon CloudWatch, and third-party SIEM solutions for compliance monitoring. Regular security assessments and vulnerability scans can be conducted on the Gateway infrastructure.

Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Gateway Best Practices

• Tool Organization and Cataloging
  • Organize tools into logical categories and namespaces to simplify discovery and management. Use consistent naming conventions and tagging strategies to make tools easily searchable. Maintain clear documentation for each tool including usage examples, error handling, and performance characteristics.
• Access Policy Design
  • Follow the principle of least privilege when defining access policies for tools. Start with restrictive policies and gradually expand access based on demonstrated need. Regularly review and audit access policies to ensure they remain appropriate as agents and tools evolve.
• Performance Optimization
  • Monitor Gateway performance metrics to identify bottlenecks and optimize configuration settings. Implement appropriate caching strategies for frequently accessed tools or data. Configure appropriate timeout values and retry logic based on tool response characteristics and business requirements.

• Lifecycle Management
  • Establish clear processes for tool versioning, updates, and deprecation. Communicate changes to tool consumers in advance and provide migration paths for breaking changes. Regularly review tool usage metrics to identify and retire unused or redundant tools.

Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Gateway Pricing

• Usage-Based Model
  • The Gateway is available as part of Amazon Bedrock AgentCore with pay-per-use pricing based on the number of tool requests processed. Charges apply for Gateway requests, data processing, and associated AWS service usage. There are no upfront costs or minimum commitments for using the Gateway service.
• Cost Components
  • Pricing includes charges for Gateway API requests, tool execution time, and data transfer between the Gateway and tools. Additional costs may apply for advanced features like custom monitoring, extended retention of logs, or dedicated throughput capacity. All pricing is transparent and visible through AWS Cost Explorer.

Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Gateway Cheat Sheet Resources:

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/bedrock-agentcore/latest/devguide/gateway.html
https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/machine-learning/introducing-amazon-bedrock-agentcore-gateway-transforming-enterprise-ai-agent-tool-development/