TAC Strands Server - AWS Fargate Deployment¶

Complete guide for deploying Twilio Agent Connect (TAC) with Strands agent framework on AWS Fargate.

Table of Contents¶

Overview
Architecture
AWS Services
Deployment

Overview¶

This deployment runs a voice and SMS AI agent using:

Twilio - Voice/SMS communication platform
AWS Bedrock - LLM inference (Amazon Nova Pro)
Strands - Agent orchestration framework
TAC (Twilio Agent Connect) - Integration middleware

The system handles incoming calls and SMS messages, routes them through an AI agent powered by AWS Bedrock, and manages conversation state using Twilio's Conversation Orchestrator and Memory services.

Architecture¶

High-Level Architecture¶

graph TB
    Customer([👤 Customer<br/>Phone Call / SMS])

    subgraph Twilio["☁️ Twilio Cloud"]
        Phone[📱 Phone Number<br/>+1-XXX-XXX-XXXX]
        Orchestrator[💬 Conversations<br/>Conversation Orchestrator]
        Memory[🧠 Memory Service<br/>Profile & Context]
    end

    HTTPS[🔒 HTTPS Endpoint<br/>ngrok / CloudFront / Route53<br/>your-domain.example.com]

    subgraph AWS["☁️ AWS Account"]
        ALB[⚖️ Application Load Balancer<br/>TAC-ALB-xxx.elb.amazonaws.com<br/>Port 80 HTTP]

        subgraph VPC["🔐 VPC 10.0.0.0/16"]
            subgraph Subnets["Multi-AZ Public Subnets"]
                Subnet1[📍 Subnet 1<br/>10.0.1.0/24<br/>us-east-1a]
                Subnet2[📍 Subnet 2<br/>10.0.2.0/24<br/>us-east-1b]
            end

            ECS[📦 ECS Fargate Task<br/>TAC Server<br/>512 CPU / 1GB RAM<br/>Port 8000]
        end

        Bedrock[🤖 AWS Bedrock<br/>Amazon Nova Pro<br/>Strands Agent]
        Logs[📊 CloudWatch Logs<br/>/ecs/tac-server-alb]
    end

    Customer -->|1. Call/SMS| Phone
    Phone -->|2. Webhook POST| HTTPS
    HTTPS -->|3. HTTP Request<br/>/twiml or /webhook| ALB
    ALB -->|4. Forward to| ECS
    ECS -->|5. Create Conversation| Orchestrator
    ECS -->|6. Retrieve Profile| Memory
    ECS -->|7. LLM Inference| Bedrock
    ECS -->|8. Write Logs| Logs
    ECS -->|9. WebSocket Audio<br/>or SMS Response| Phone
    Phone -->|10. Response| Customer

    style Customer fill:#e1f5ff
    style Twilio fill:#f0f0f0
    style HTTPS fill:#d4f1f4
    style AWS fill:#fff4e6
    style VPC fill:#e8f5e9
    style ECS fill:#fff9c4
    style Bedrock fill:#f3e5f5
    style Logs fill:#e3f2fd

AWS Services¶

Core Services¶

Service	Purpose
ECS Fargate	Container runtime for TAC server
Application Load Balancer	Stable DNS endpoint, health checks, WebSocket support
AWS Bedrock	LLM inference - Amazon Nova Pro (pay-per-token)
VPC	Network isolation (10.0.0.0/16)
Internet Gateway	Internet connectivity
Security Groups	Firewall rules
CloudWatch Logs	Application logs (7-day retention)
IAM Roles	AWS permissions management (Bedrock access)

Optional Services (HTTPS Layer)¶

Service	Purpose
ngrok	HTTPS tunnel for testing/development
CloudFront	HTTPS endpoint with free AWS domain
Route53 + ACM	Custom domain with AWS certificate

Deployment¶

Prerequisites¶

Required:

AWS CLI configured with appropriate credentials
Docker installed
Python 3.10+ with uv package manager
AWS ECR repository (to store your Docker image)
HTTPS endpoint (choose one):
ngrok - For testing and development
CloudFront - For production with AWS-provided HTTPS domain
Route53 + ACM - For production with custom domain
Twilio account with:
Account SID
Auth Token
API Key and Secret
Phone number
Conversation Configuration ID from Conversation Orchestrator

Where to find Twilio credentials:

Account SID & Auth Token: Twilio Console → Account → API Keys & Tokens
API Key & Secret: Twilio Console → Account → API Keys & Tokens
Conversation Configuration ID: Twilio Console → Conversation Orchestrator → Configuration

Step 0: Build and Publish Docker Image¶

1. Build Docker image:

# From the strands_aws_fargate directory
docker build -t tac-strands-server:latest .

2. Publish to AWS ECR:

Publish your Docker image to AWS ECR. You'll need the ECR image URI for Step 1.

Example URI format: 123456789012.dkr.ecr.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/tac-strands-server:latest

Step 1: Deploy CloudFormation Stack¶

Deploy the infrastructure (from the strands_aws_fargate directory):

aws cloudformation deploy \
  --template-file cloudformation.yaml \
  --stack-name TACStack \
  --parameter-overrides \
    ImageURI=YOUR_ECR_URI:latest \
    TwilioAccountSid=YOUR_ACCOUNT_SID \
    TwilioAuthToken=YOUR_AUTH_TOKEN \
    TwilioApiKey=YOUR_API_KEY \
    TwilioApiSecret=YOUR_API_SECRET \
    TwilioPhoneNumber=YOUR_PHONE_NUMBER \
    TwilioConversationConfigurationId=YOUR_CONVERSATION_CONFIGURATION_ID \
    TwilioVoicePublicDomain=YOUR_HTTPS_DOMAIN \
  --capabilities CAPABILITY_IAM \
  --region us-east-1

Step 2: Get ALB DNS Name¶

aws cloudformation describe-stacks \
  --stack-name TACStack \
  --query 'Stacks[0].Outputs[?OutputKey==`LoadBalancerDNS`].OutputValue' \
  --output text \
  --region us-east-1

Output example: TAC-ALB-xxx.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com

Step 3: Connect HTTPS Endpoint to ALB¶

Point your HTTPS endpoint to the ALB DNS from Step 2.

For example, if using ngrok:

ngrok http TAC-ALB-xxx.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com:80 --domain=your-domain.ngrok.app

Step 4: Configure Twilio Webhooks¶

Voice (Phone Numbers):

Go to Twilio Console → Phone Numbers → Active Numbers
Select your phone number
Set Voice URL: https://your-https-domain.com/twiml (POST)

SMS (Conversation Orchestrator):

Go to Twilio Console → Conversation Orchestrator
Select your Conversation Service
Configure webhook
Set Webhook URL: https://your-https-domain.com/webhook (POST)

Step 5: Test Your Deployment¶

Make a phone call or send an SMS message to your Twilio phone number to test the deployment.