Regtransfers/aws-cost-optimizer

@ 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
• Identify resources in expensive regions
• Calculate potential savings with specific actions

@ AWS CLI Commands

@ Get Cost and Usage

# 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

# 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

# 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:

# 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
• AWS Well-Architected Framework - Cost Optimization
• AWS Cost Explorer API

@ Limitations

• Use this skill only when the task clearly matches the scope described above.
• never 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.