AWS Bedrock Knowledge Bases retrieve grounded answers from documents you place in an approved knowledge base. MCP access is authenticated with AWS IAM, so use a dedicated role with a policy limited to one non-production knowledge base.
This guide covers AWS-side access for a knowledge-base MCP server. The AWS Knowledge agent template is separate; it does not create AWS identities, knowledge bases, or IAM policy.
Choose a connection method
Use an assumed IAM role with temporary credentials whenever the MCP runtime supports it. Static IAM access keys are a fallback for clients that cannot assume a role, not an equivalent default. In either case, scope the identity to the knowledge-base ARN and its backing data sources according to AWS's Knowledge Bases IAM guidance.
Recommended: Dedicated IAM role for one Knowledge Base
Create a non-production Bedrock Knowledge Base with test documents and a dedicated IAM role used only by the MCP runtime. Do not use an administrator access key.
- Create the knowledge base and its test data source in the intended AWS account and region.
- Create an IAM role with only the Bedrock Knowledge Base actions the MCP server requires, scoped to that knowledge-base ARN where AWS supports resource-level permissions.
- Add only the required access to the underlying data source and vector store; do not grant account-wide S3, Bedrock, or IAM permissions.
- Use short-lived role credentials rather than a long-lived access key whenever the MCP client supports AWS role assumption.
- Retrieve a known test document, then confirm that another knowledge base or S3 bucket is denied.
AWS's Bedrock Knowledge Bases IAM documentation is the source of truth for current actions and resource constraints.
Verify AWS Knowledge MCP
Use this checklist to confirm the MCP server is connected with the intended access.
- Connect the MCP client using the newly created authorization.
- Confirm that AWS Knowledge MCP tools are discovered.
- Read one known test resource that the authorized identity is allowed to access.
- Attempt to read a resource outside the approved AWS Knowledge boundary; it should be unavailable or denied.
- Confirm that no write capability beyond the reviewed setup is available.
Troubleshooting
An AccessDenied response should be fixed by adding the specific missing action or resource to the role policy, not by attaching AdministratorAccess. Also check that the client is using the knowledge base's AWS region.
Next steps
Deploy the AWS Knowledge agent template to create a governed agent in Dome that can retrieve only from the approved Bedrock Knowledge Base, with the template's included model, tools, and rules.
