How to Govern Amazon Bedrock Agents
Bedrock agents execute action groups in your AWS environment. Cordum adds policy enforcement before every action group invocation.
The problem with ungoverned Bedrock Agents agents
- Bedrock agents call action groups backed by Lambda. AWS IAM controls invocation, not what the agent does once running.
- Guardrails for Bedrock focus on content filtering (PII, toxicity) not action-level governance.
- Knowledge base retrievals and action groups run with no inter-step policy check.
- CloudTrail logs Lambda invocations, not policy reasoning.
How Cordum governs Bedrock Agents
Submit Bedrock invocations as Cordum jobs
Route invocations through Cordum before they reach Bedrock. Safety Kernel evaluates action groups.
const job = {
type: "bedrock.agent.invoke",
payload: {
agentId: "AGENT123ABC",
agentAliasId: "PROD",
actionGroups: ["search-orders", "issue-refund", "send-email"],
inputText: customerRequest,
},
};
await cordumClient.jobs.submit(job);Govern action groups by context
Restrict invocation based on customer tier, request classification, or business hours.
Complement Bedrock Guardrails
Cordum handles action-level governance. Bedrock Guardrails handles content filtering. Use both.
Unified audit across AWS and Cordum
Cordum logs policy decisions and approval chains. CloudTrail logs execution. Together: complete picture.
Bedrock Agents native vs Cordum governance
| Area | Bedrock Agents Native | With Cordum |
|---|---|---|
| Action-level governance | IAM controls invocation, not action scope | Per-action-group policy enforcement |
| Content safety | Bedrock Guardrails (PII, toxicity) | Complementary: action governance + output safety |
| Approval workflows | None | REQUIRE_APPROVAL with configurable routing |
| Policy versioning | N/A | Version-controlled bundles with hot reload |
| Audit depth | CloudTrail (execution-level) | Policy decision + approval chain + execution |
FAQ
Does Cordum replace Bedrock Guardrails?
No. They are complementary. Guardrails handles content safety. Cordum handles action governance.
Do I need to modify my Lambda functions?
No. Cordum governs the invocation, not the function code.
Related guides
Ready to govern your Bedrock Agents agents?
Start with the open-source Cordum platform. Add policies, approvals, and audit trails in minutes.