James Hood (@jameshood.dev)

Part 22 of DEV Track Spotlight 🤖

DEV403 with @jameshood.dev (AWS) & @maishsk.com (AWS)

"I am also a former AI skeptic. My previous experience with AI was trying flashy demos on real world code and watching it crash and burn."

Then he discovered Agent SOPs.
#AWSreInvent #DEVTrack #AWSCommunity

30.12.2025 17:59 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0

🥲

27.12.2025 23:29 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

GitHub - strands-agents/agent-sop: Natural language workflows that enable AI agents to perform complex, multi-step tasks with consistency and reliability. Natural language workflows that enable AI agents to perform complex, multi-step tasks with consistency and reliability. - strands-agents/agent-sop

Also got to demo Strands Agent SOPs, a simple but incredibly powerful technique for creating “determin-ish-tic” agentic workflows. Agent SOPs are an innovation that came from our internal builder community and is now open source to benefit the broader AI community. github.com/strands-agen...

12.12.2025 14:21 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

2025 has been the most gratifying year of my career. Felt privileged to share the #AWSreInvent stage with @abaibourova.bsky.social and tell the true story of how I went from #AI skeptic to power user, sparking a company-wide grassroots movement of tens of thousands of #Amazon builders.

12.12.2025 13:15 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0

Introducing Strands Agent SOPs – Natural Language Workflows for AI Agents Modern AI can write code, compose symphonies, and solve complex reasoning problems. So why is it still so hard to get them to reliably do what you want? Building reliable AI agents that consistently perform complex tasks remains challenging. While modern language models excel at reasoning and problem-solving, translating that capability into predictable workflows often [...]

📰 New article by James Hood, Nicholas Clegg

Introducing Strands Agent SOPs – Natural Language Workflows for AI Agents

#AWS #OpenSource

20.11.2025 21:34 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

Excited to give this talk at #AWSreInvent w/ @abaibourova.bsky.social! Come learn about Amazon's internal transformation to #AI Native software development through a mix of grassroots builder energy and organizational support. Can't wait to tell this story! registration.awsevents.com/flow/awseven...

29.11.2025 17:25 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Are you curious how Amazon's internal teams are leveraging #AI assistants to accelerate their development cycles? 🤔 Join our code talk "DEV403 | How Amazon Teams Use AI Assistants to Accelerate Development" at #AWSreInvent #AWS #DeveloperTools #generativeAI registration.awsevents.com/flow/awseven...

14.10.2025 15:37 👍 5 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

GitHub - aws/amazon-q-developer-cli: ✨ Add autocomplete and AI to your existing terminal on macOS & Linux ✨ Add autocomplete and AI to your existing terminal on macOS & Linux - aws/amazon-q-developer-cli

Don’t be sleeping on Amazon Q! Launched a completely revamped agentic chat experience on 3/7. Open source, great pricing. github.com/aws/amazon-q...

17.04.2025 14:45 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

I Need Therapy (and you do too!) Trigger warning: This post contains content about suicide.

3 years ago today. Thinking of you my friend. 💔 #ineedtherapy jlhood.com/i-need-thera...

15.03.2025 17:41 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

AWS CloudFormation: 2024 Year in Review | Amazon Web Services AWS CloudFormation: 2024 Year in Review AWS CloudFormation enables you to model and provision your cloud application infrastructure as code-base templates. Whether you prefer writing templates directl...

2024 was a big year for #AWS #CloudFormation. Check out this blog post to see a recap of what we launched! 🚀 Even more excited about what we have planned for 2025! 😄 aws.amazon.com/blogs/devops...

19.02.2025 15:35 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

#AWS #CDK support in progress! 🙂 github.com/aws/aws-cdk/...

13.02.2025 18:05 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Reshape your AWS CloudFormation stacks seamlessly with stack refactoring AWS CloudFormation introduces a new capability called stack refactoring that makes it easy to reorganize cloud resources across your CloudFormation stacks. Stack refactoring enables you to move resources from one stack to another, split monolithic stacks into smaller components, and rename the logical name of resources within a stack. This enables you to adapt your stacks to meet architectural patterns, operational needs, or business requirements. As your workloads scale and requirements evolve, re-architecting resources into a new stack structure can become necessary. For example, you may need to split a monolithic stack for easier resource lifecycle management or rename resource logical IDs to align with new naming conventions. Previously, refactoring a stack required multiple manual steps, such as updating templates to retain targeted resources, removing them from current stacks, and then importing them into new stacks. Stack refactoring improves the speed and safety of this process. To refactor a stack, you first provide the CloudFormation templates that reflect the desired stack structure. Then, you generate a preview of the refactor operation, allowing you to confirm that the refactoring changes align with your requirements. If the planned changes meet your expectations, you can execute the refactor operation through an atomic workflow. This new capability enables seamless and continuous adaptation to evolving architectural patterns. Stack refactor is available in all AWS Regions where CloudFormation is supported. To get started, update your CloudFormation templates to reflect the desired stack structure, then use the AWS CLI or SDK to perform the refactor operation. Visit our https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/devops/introducing-aws-cloudformation-stack-refactoring/ to learn more about this feature.

Reshape your AWS CloudFormation stacks seamlessly with stack refactoring

AWS CloudFormation introduces a new capability called stack refactoring that makes it easy to reorganize cloud resources across your CloudFormation stacks. Stack refactoring enables...

#AWS #AwsGovcloudUs #AwsCloudformation

07.02.2025 00:05 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

Reshape your AWS CloudFormation stacks seamlessly with stack refactoring - AWS Discover more about what's new at AWS with Reshape your AWS CloudFormation stacks seamlessly with stack refactoring

#AWS #CloudFormation now supports stack refactoring! Super excited about this launch!! 🚀 aws.amazon.com/about-aws/wh...

06.02.2025 23:23 👍 6 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 2

Fun!

03.02.2025 00:27 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Yeah concussions take forever to recover from. I had a hockey team mate out for 6 months. Take care of yourself! Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help.

30.01.2025 06:22 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

I'm so sorry. 😢

28.01.2025 21:53 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Oh no! Snowboarding accident? ☹️

28.01.2025 19:01 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

On Call (TV Series 2025– ) | Action, Crime, Drama On Call: Created by Tim Walsh, Elliot Wolf. With Troian Bellisario, Brandon Larracuente, Eriq La Salle, Rich Ting. Follows a pair of police officers on patrol as they respond to a new radio call, arri...

Not against police procedurals, but I was expecting a whole different kind of “thriller” from an Amazon Prime original series called On Call… 📟 www.imdb.com/title/tt1458...

09.01.2025 23:45 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Goodput degradation in rate-limited systems In this post, we’ll explore how “goodput” (the rate of useful, successful work completed) degrades under increasing load, particularly in multi-step workflows that depend on rate-limited services.

Wrote a short blog post on how goodput can degrade ↘️ as offered load to our system increases ↗️ www.efekarakus.com/2025/01/08/g...

09.01.2025 02:40 👍 4 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0

Happy New Year? 😭

08.01.2025 05:23 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

RFC 676: Contributor-Council-Charter.md by haubles · Pull Request #679 · aws/aws-cdk-rfcs This is a request for comments about the proposed AWS CDK Contributor Council. See Tracking Issue #676 for discussion of the proposal. By submitting this pull request, I confirm that my contributi...

As the new OSS Developer Advocate for AWS CDK, I was hired to help evolve the way AWS engages with the CDK community.

Today, we're proposing to form a CDK Contributor Council as a first step in that evolution.

github.com/aws/aws-cdk-...

02.01.2025 21:45 👍 46 🔁 23 💬 2 📌 0

Something to remember

31.12.2024 02:24 👍 9415 🔁 1517 💬 120 📌 91

Don’t worry. I’m just going to merge this 1-liner code change before I close my laptop for the holiday…

24.12.2024 22:26 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

One of the most reliable ways to improve our mental health is to help others.

After being randomly assigned to do just 3 acts of kindness a week, people felt significantly less depressed, anxious, and lonely.

Lifting others up elevates us too. Giving shows us that we matter.

24.12.2024 17:07 👍 245 🔁 64 💬 3 📌 8

Re:Explaining DSQL

Excellent piece on Amazon Aurora DSQL from @ryan-sb.bsky.social. A take that is nuanced and introspective on DSQL’s place in the AWS ecosystem. rsb.io/posts/re-exp...

23.12.2024 21:47 👍 15 🔁 5 💬 0 📌 0

😝🤣

21.12.2024 19:32 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

The most valuable thing you can do for your career is to be thoughtful about how you spend your time. One of the tools I use most to do that, Mai-Lan Tomsen Bukovec's principal roles framework, is now available outside Amazon for the first time.

19.12.2024 18:28 👍 42 🔁 9 💬 1 📌 1

🫡

16.12.2024 18:00 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Missed #reInvent 2024? No worries! The unofficial planner is now updated with session slides and video recordings. 📅✨ Rewatch your favorites or discover new ones based on topic, level, or interest anytime, anywhere. Happy learning and happy holidays! 🎄🎉
reinvent-planner.cloud/sessions

15.12.2024 18:31 👍 27 🔁 12 💬 1 📌 2

James Hood

Latest posts by James Hood @jameshood.dev