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aws-cost-optimizer · agentic-awesome-skills · Flowy
Comprehensive AWS cost analysis and optimization recommendations using AWS CLI and Cost Explorer
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Comprehensive AWS cost analysis and optimization recommendations using AWS CLI and Cost Explorer 📦 Ships with agentic-awesome-skills
</> SKILL.md
aws-cost-optimizer.SKILL.md
---
name : aws-cost-optimizer
description : "Comprehensive AWS cost analysis and optimization recommendations using AWS CLI and Cost Explorer"
risk : safe
source : community
date_added : "2026-02-27"
---
# AWS Cost Optimizer
Analyze AWS spending patterns, identify waste, and provide actionable cost reduction strategies.
## When to Use This Skill
Use this skill when you need to analyze AWS spending, identify cost optimization opportunities, or reduce cloud waste.
## Core Capabilities
**Cost Analysis**
- Parse AWS Cost Explorer data for trends and anomalies
- Break down costs by service, region, and resource tags
- Identify month-over-month spending increases
**Resource Optimization**
- Detect idle EC2 instances (low CPU utilization)
- Find unattached EBS volumes and old snapshots
- Identify unused Elastic IPs
- Locate underutilized RDS instances
- Find old S3 objects eligible for lifecycle policies
**Savings Recommendations**
- Suggest Reserved Instance/Savings Plans opportunities
- Recommend instance rightsizing based on CloudWatch metrics
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- Identify resources in expensive regions
- Calculate potential savings with specific actions
## AWS CLI Commands
### Get Cost and Usage
```bash
# Last 30 days cost by service
aws ce get-cost-and-usage \
--time-period Start=$(date -d '30 days ago' +%Y-%m-%d),End=$(date +%Y-%m-%d) \
--granularity MONTHLY \
--metrics BlendedCost \
--group-by Type=DIMENSION,Key=SERVICE
# Daily costs for current month
aws ce get-cost-and-usage \
--time-period Start=$(date +%Y-%m-01),End=$(date +%Y-%m-%d) \
--granularity DAILY \
--metrics UnblendedCost
```
### Find Unused Resources
```bash
# Unattached EBS volumes
aws ec2 describe-volumes \
--filters Name=status,Values=available \
--query 'Volumes[*].[VolumeId,Size,VolumeType,CreateTime]' \
--output table
# Unused Elastic IPs
aws ec2 describe-addresses \
--query 'Addresses[?AssociationId==null].[PublicIp,AllocationId]' \
--output table
# Idle EC2 instances (requires CloudWatch)
aws cloudwatch get-metric-statistics \
--namespace AWS/EC2 \
--metric-name CPUUtilization \
--dimensions Name=InstanceId,Value=i-xxxxx \
--start-time $(date -u -d '7 days ago' +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S) \
--end-time $(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S) \
--period 86400 \
--statistics Average
# Old EBS snapshots (>90 days)
aws ec2 describe-snapshots \
--owner-ids self \
--query 'Snapshots[?StartTime<=`'$(date -d '90 days ago' --iso-8601)'`].[SnapshotId,StartTime,VolumeSize]' \
--output table
```
### Rightsizing Analysis
```bash
# List EC2 instances with their types
aws ec2 describe-instances \
--query 'Reservations[*].Instances[*].[InstanceId,InstanceType,State.Name,Tags[?Key==`Name`].Value|[0]]' \
--output table
# Get RDS instance utilization
aws cloudwatch get-metric-statistics \
--namespace AWS/RDS \
--metric-name CPUUtilization \
--dimensions Name=DBInstanceIdentifier,Value=mydb \
--start-time $(date -u -d '30 days ago' +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S) \
--end-time $(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S) \
--period 86400 \
--statistics Average,Maximum
```
## Optimization Workflow
1. **Baseline Assessment**
- Pull 3-6 months of cost data
- Identify top 5 spending services
- Calculate growth rate
2. **Quick Wins**
- Delete unattached EBS volumes
- Release unused Elastic IPs
- Stop/terminate idle EC2 instances
- Delete old snapshots
3. **Strategic Optimization**
- Analyze Reserved Instance coverage
- Review instance types vs. workload
- Implement S3 lifecycle policies
- Consider Spot instances for non-critical workloads
4. **Ongoing Monitoring**
- Set up AWS Budgets with alerts
- Enable Cost Anomaly Detection
- Tag resources for cost allocation
- Monthly cost review meetings
## Cost Optimization Checklist
- [ ] Enable AWS Cost Explorer
- [ ] Set up cost allocation tags
- [ ] Create AWS Budget with alerts
- [ ] Review and delete unused resources
- [ ] Analyze Reserved Instance opportunities
- [ ] Implement S3 Intelligent-Tiering
- [ ] Review data transfer costs
- [ ] Optimize Lambda memory allocation
- [ ] Use CloudWatch Logs retention policies
- [ ] Consider multi-region cost differences
## Example Prompts
**Analysis**
- "Show me AWS costs for the last 3 months broken down by service"
- "What are my top 10 most expensive resources?"
- "Compare this month's spending to last month"
**Optimization**
- "Find all unattached EBS volumes and calculate savings"
- "Identify EC2 instances with <5% CPU utilization"
- "Suggest Reserved Instance purchases based on usage"
- "Calculate savings from deleting snapshots older than 90 days"
**Implementation**
- "Create a script to delete unattached volumes"
- "Set up a budget alert for $1000/month"
- "Generate a cost optimization report for leadership"
## Best Practices
- Always test in non-production first
- Verify resources are truly unused before deletion
- Document all cost optimization actions
- Calculate ROI for optimization efforts
- Automate recurring optimization tasks
- Use AWS Trusted Advisor recommendations
- Enable AWS Cost Anomaly Detection
## Integration with Kiro CLI
This skill works seamlessly with Kiro CLI's AWS integration:
```bash
# Use Kiro to analyze costs
kiro-cli chat "Use aws-cost-optimizer to analyze my spending"
# Generate optimization report
kiro-cli chat "Create a cost optimization plan using aws-cost-optimizer"
```
## Safety Notes
- **Risk Level: Low** - Read-only analysis is safe
- **Deletion Actions: Medium Risk** - Always verify before deleting resources
- **Production Changes: High Risk** - Test rightsizing in dev/staging first
- Maintain backups before any deletion
- Use `--dry-run` flag when available
## Additional Resources
- [AWS Cost Optimization Best Practices](https://aws.amazon.com/pricing/cost-optimization/)
- [AWS Well-Architected Framework - Cost Optimization](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/wellarchitected/latest/cost-optimization-pillar/welcome.html)
- [AWS Cost Explorer API](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cost-management/latest/APIReference/Welcome.html)
## Limitations
- Use this skill only when the task clearly matches the scope described above.
- Do not treat the output as a substitute for environment-specific validation, testing, or expert review.
- Stop and ask for clarification if required inputs, permissions, safety boundaries, or success criteria are missing.
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