# Set up dependencies and credentials to create, maintain, and use gateway resources
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The AgentCore Gateway service involves the following main processes:
+  **Creation and maintenance of gateway resources** – You can create gateway and gateway target resources through the Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Control Plane service.
+  **Invocation of gateways** – After creating a gateway and gateway target, you can invoke the gateway through direct HTTP requests to the gateway or through the help of an MCP client or agent.

Select a topic to learn about setting up tools and credentials for carrying out these processes:

**Topics**
+ [Set up tools and credentials for the creation and maintenance of gateway resources](#gateway-setup-control-plane)
+ [Invocation of gateways](#gateway-setup-data-plane)

## Set up tools and credentials for the creation and maintenance of gateway resources
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You create, modify, delete, and retrieve information about gateway and gateway target resources through making calls to the Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Control Plane service. The [Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Control Plane service API reference](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/bedrock-agentcore-control/latest/APIReference/Welcome.html) details information about the API operations and structures in this service.

You can interact with the Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Control Plane service in the following ways. Expand a topic to learn how to install the tool and set up authentication for it.

### AWS Management Console
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The AWS Management Console lets you create and maintain gateway and gateway target resources through an interactive graphical interface in a web browser.
+  **Installation** – None needed. To manage gateways through the AgentCore console, you can navigate to [https://console.aws.amazon.com/bedrock-agentcore/home\$1](https://console.aws.amazon.com/bedrock-agentcore/home#) and select **Gateways** from the left navigation pane.
+  **Authentication** – Sign in with an IAM identity with permissions to use AgentCore Gateway actions.

### Direct HTTP requests
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The [Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Control Plane service API reference](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/bedrock-agentcore-control/latest/APIReference/Welcome.html) page for each API operations provides the information you need to make an API request.
+  **Installation** – None needed.
+  **Authentication** – You can use the [Authorization header](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/reference_sigv-authentication-methods.html) or query parameters (using [AWS Signature Version 4](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/API/sigv4-query-string-auth.html) ) to authenticate.

### AWS software development kits SDKs
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 AWS SDKs let you make API requests to AWS services through a programming language of your choice. Refer to the following resources in the [AWS SDKs and Tools Reference Guide](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/sdkref/latest/guide/overview.html) to get set up:
+  **Installation** – To learn about an SDK and how to install it, select the ** AWS SDK for** link that corresponds to your programming language of choice.
+  **Authentication** – To learn about configuring SDKs and authentication, refer to the links in the **This guide’s relevant sections for you are:** column.
+  **Other resources** – In the language-specific reference, search for the Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Core Control service to see the syntax of specific API methods.

### AWS Command Line Interface
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The AWS Command Line Interface (CLI) lets you interact with the AWS API in a command line interface. To learn how to install and set up the AWS CLI, see [Getting started with the AWS CLI](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/userguide/cli-chap-getting-started.html) in the [AWS Command Line Interface User Guide](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/userguide/).
+  **Installation** – To learn how to install the AWS CLI see [Installing or updating to the latest version of the AWS CLI](https://docs.aws.amazon.com//cli/latest/userguide/getting-started-install.html).
+  **Authentication** – To learn about configuring your credentials in the AWS CLI see [Setting up the AWS CLI](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/userguide/getting-started-quickstart.html).
+  **Other resources** – To see the syntax of specific API methods in the Amazon Bedrock AgentCore control plane service, see the [bedrock-agentcore-control](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/reference/bedrock-agentcore-control/) reference.

### AgentCore CLI
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The AgentCore CLI is a Node.js command-line tool for interacting with the AgentCore API. Refer to the following resources in the [AgentCore CLI repository](https://github.com/aws/agentcore-cli).
+  **Installation** – To install the AgentCore CLI, run the following command:

  ```
  npm install -g @aws/agentcore
  ```
+  **Authentication** – To access your AWS credentials and configure them for the AgentCore CLI, follow the steps at [Using IAM Identity Center to authenticate AWS SDK and Tools](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/sdkref/latest/guide/access-sso.html).
+  **Other resources** – For more information about using the AgentCore CLI to interact with AgentCore Gateway, see the [AgentCore CLI repository](https://github.com/aws/agentcore-cli).

## Invocation of gateways
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After you create a gateway and gateway targets, you can interact with the gateway through direct HTTP requests or through an MCP client or agent.

### Direct HTTP requests
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To make an HTTP request to an AgentCore gateway, you make a POST request to a gateway endpoint that you set up when creating a gateway.
+  **Installation** – None needed.
+  **Authentication** – You can use the [Authorization header](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/reference_sigv-authentication-methods.html) or query parameters (using [AWS Signature Version 4](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/API/sigv4-query-string-auth.html) ) to authenticate.

### MCP client
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To interact with an AgentCore gateway using an MCP client, you need to install the MCP client by following the **Setting up your environment** and **Setting up your API key** steps at [Build an MCP client](https://modelcontextprotocol.io/docs/develop/build-client) after choosing your programming language of choice. By following the steps, you’ll also retrieve an Anthropic API key for authentication.

### Strands Agents SDK
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To interact with an AgentCore gateway using the Strands Agents SDK, you need to install the Strands SDK by following the steps at [Strands Agents SDK](https://strandsagents.com/latest/documentation/docs/) to install the SDK and set up credentials.

### Langgraph agent
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To interact with an AgentCore gateway using a Langgraph agent, you need to install Langgraph by navigating to [LangGraph](https://www.langchain.com/langgraph) , selecting **Docs** , and choosing the **LangGraph** page that corresponds to your programming language of choice. By following these steps, you’ll also receive an API key to help set up your credentials.