fix(deploy): auto-populate default target on non-interactive deploy by jariy17 · Pull Request #1478 · aws/agentcore-cli

jariy17 · 2026-06-08T18:02:28Z

Problem

agentcore deploy on a freshly-created project fails in non-interactive mode with:

Target "default" not found in aws-targets.json

agentcore create (both interactive and non-interactive) writes an empty aws-targets.json by design — the target is meant to be populated at deploy time. The interactive deploy flow prompts the user for the target (region/account) via the TUI. But the non-interactive path (deploy --yes / --json / --target) routes through handleDeploy, which just looks up the 'default' target and errors when the array is empty.

Notably, agentcore dev (runCliDeploy) already auto-populated the target from the detected AWS context — but plain non-interactive deploy did not, so the two diverged.

Fix

Extract the auto-populate logic into a shared ensureDefaultDeploymentTarget(configIO) helper and call it in handleDeploy before the target lookup. On an empty aws-targets.json, it detects the account/region via the existing detectAwsContext() and writes a single default target. Best-effort: if the account can't be detected, nothing is written and the existing clear "target not found" error still surfaces.

runCliDeploy (used by dev) now reuses the same helper instead of its own inline copy, removing duplication.

Testing

Unit (src/cli/operations/deploy/__tests__/ensure-target.test.ts): empty → writes default; existing target → no-op; missing/unreadable file → populates; account undetectable → no write; detected region propagated.
Integ (integ-tests/deploy-autopopulate-target.test.ts): create leaves []; deploy --json --dry-run no longer errors "not found"; with AWS creds, aws-targets.json is populated with a default target.
Manual: npm run bundle → installed the tarball globally → agentcore create --name X --no-agent (targets []) → agentcore deploy --json --dry-run → aws-targets.json became [{name:"default", account, region}] and deploy advanced past target resolution (failed later only on the expected "No resources defined" for a --no-agent project).

Addresses #699

A freshly-created project has an empty aws-targets.json by design (both interactive and non-interactive create write []; the target is populated at deploy time). The interactive deploy flow prompts for the target via the TUI, but the non-interactive path (deploy --yes/--json/--target) routes through handleDeploy, which looked up the 'default' target and failed with 'Target "default" not found' on any fresh project. Only 'agentcore dev' (runCliDeploy) auto-populated the target from the detected AWS context; plain non-interactive deploy did not. Extract that logic into a shared ensureDefaultDeploymentTarget helper and call it in handleDeploy before the target lookup, so all non-interactive deploys detect the account/region and write a single 'default' target (best-effort; if the account can't be detected the existing clear error still surfaces). runCliDeploy reuses the same helper. Addresses the deploy half of aws#699. Tests: unit (ensure-target.test.ts) + integ (deploy-autopopulate-target.test.ts); manually verified via npm run bundle + global install + create/deploy.

agentcore-devx-automation · 2026-06-08T18:03:23Z

Claude Security Review: no high-confidence findings. (run)

github-actions · 2026-06-08T18:03:33Z

Package Tarball

aws-agentcore-0.18.0.tgz

How to install

gh release download pr-1478-tarball --repo aws/agentcore-cli --pattern "*.tgz" --dir /tmp/pr-tarball
npm install -g /tmp/pr-tarball/aws-agentcore-0.18.0.tgz

agentcore-cli-automation

Thanks for the fix — the shared helper and the two-call sites cleanup look good. One concern with the new integ test that should be addressed before merging.

- useDevDeploy (dev TUI path) now uses ensureDefaultDeploymentTarget instead of its own duplicated inline auto-populate block, so all deploy entry points (handleDeploy, runCliDeploy, dev TUI) go through one helper. - Remove integ-tests/deploy-autopopulate-target.test.ts: per integ-tests/README.md integ tests run without AWS credentials, where the auto-populate is a no-op and the middle assertion would fail. The unit tests in ensure-target.test.ts already cover the empty/populated/no-account branches.

jariy17 · 2026-06-08T18:28:53Z

Thanks for the review. Addressed both points:

Integ test — removed deploy-autopopulate-target.test.ts entirely. You're right that it would fail in the no-credentials integ environment (auto-populate is a no-op → the middle assertion breaks). The unit tests in ensure-target.test.ts already cover the empty/populated/missing-file/no-account branches without needing creds.
Consistency — also updated useDevDeploy (the dev TUI path), which still had its own duplicated inline auto-populate block, to use the shared ensureDefaultDeploymentTarget helper. Now all deploy entry points (handleDeploy, runCliDeploy, and the dev TUI) go through the one function.

Both in 37d5a4b.

agentcore-devx-automation · 2026-06-08T18:30:25Z

Claude Security Review: no high-confidence findings. (run)

Hweinstock

Great win! This always bugged me.

Hweinstock · 2026-06-08T18:52:33Z

+  try {
+    targets = await configIO.readAWSDeploymentTargets();
+  } catch {
+    // aws-targets.json missing or unreadable — treat as empty and try to populate.


q: this behavior is likely reasonable if we don't think customers are manually editing it (which I think I agree with). However, still wondering if we might want to surface the read error instead of silently overwrite the file?

Good call — updated in 0a64ed8. It now only treats a genuinely-missing file (ConfigNotFoundError) as empty; any other read failure (corrupt JSON, validation, permissions) is rethrown so we don't silently overwrite a file that exists but couldn't be parsed. Added a unit test for the rethrow path.

Hweinstock · 2026-06-08T18:53:07Z

+    targets = await configIO.readAWSDeploymentTargets();
+  } catch {
+    // aws-targets.json missing or unreadable — treat as empty and try to populate.
+    targets = [];


nit: can we just return false here?

Done in 0a64ed8 — the catch now rethrows non-ConfigNotFoundError errors and only falls through to targets = [] for the missing-file case, so the structure is cleaner.

Hweinstock · 2026-06-08T18:54:14Z

  type OnlineEvalEnableResult,
 } from './post-deploy-online-evals';

+// Auto-populate a default deployment target for non-interactive deploys


nit: unneeded comment.

Removed in 0a64ed8.

Per review feedback on aws#1478: - ensureDefaultDeploymentTarget now only treats a genuinely missing file (ConfigNotFoundError) as empty; any other read failure (corrupt JSON, validation, permissions) is rethrown instead of silently overwriting a file that exists but couldn't be parsed. - Drop the redundant export comment in operations/deploy/index.ts. - Add a unit test covering the rethrow path.

agentcore-devx-automation · 2026-06-08T19:44:44Z

Claude Security Review: no high-confidence findings. (run)

jariy17 requested a review from a team June 8, 2026 18:02

github-actions Bot added the size/m PR size: M label Jun 8, 2026

jariy17 temporarily deployed to e2e-testing June 8, 2026 18:02 — with GitHub Actions Inactive

jariy17 mentioned this pull request Jun 8, 2026

Inconsistent deployment target handling across CLI commands #699

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jariy17 merged commit 96be003 into aws:main Jun 8, 2026
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jariy17 deleted the fix/non-interactive-deploy-autopopulate-target branch June 8, 2026 20:12

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