--- name: aws-cost-operations description: "AWS cost optimization, monitoring, and operational excellence expert. Use when analyzing AWS bills, estimating costs, setting up CloudWatch alarms, querying logs, auditing CloudTrail activity, or assessing security posture." risk: critical source: https://github.com/zxkane/aws-skills/tree/main/plugins/aws-cost-ops/skills/aws-cost-operations source_repo: zxkane/aws-skills source_type: community date_added: 2026-07-01 license: MIT license_source: https://github.com/zxkane/aws-skills/blob/main/LICENSE --- # AWS Cost & Operations This skill provides comprehensive guidance for AWS cost optimization, monitoring, observability, and operational excellence with integrated MCP servers. ## AWS Documentation Requirement Always verify AWS facts using MCP tools (`mcp__aws-mcp__*` or `mcp__*awsdocs*__*`) before answering. This catalog tree does not bundle MCP servers, setup dependencies or the references named below. Discover actual tools; if unavailable, use current official AWS documentation or report missing account data. Do not claim setup auto-loaded or install/connect a server without authorization. ## Integrated MCP Servers The upstream plugin describes these 3 MCP servers; this skill alone does not provide them: ### Bundled Servers #### 1. AWS Pricing MCP Server (`pricing`) **Purpose**: Pre-deployment cost estimation and optimization - Estimate costs before deploying resources - Compare pricing across regions - Calculate Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) - Evaluate different service options for cost efficiency #### 2. AWS Cost Explorer MCP Server (`costexp`) **Purpose**: Detailed cost analysis and reporting - Analyze historical spending patterns - Identify cost anomalies and trends - Forecast future costs - Analyze cost by service, region, or tag #### 3. Amazon CloudWatch MCP Server (`cw`) **Purpose**: Metrics, alarms, and logs analysis - Query CloudWatch metrics and logs - Create and manage CloudWatch alarms - Troubleshoot operational issues - Monitor resource utilization > **Note**: The following servers are available separately via the Full AWS MCP Server (see `aws-mcp-setup` skill) and are not bundled with this plugin: > - AWS Billing and Cost Management MCP — Real-time billing details > - CloudWatch Application Signals MCP — APM and SLOs > - AWS Managed Prometheus MCP — PromQL queries for containers > - AWS CloudTrail MCP — API activity audit > - AWS Well-Architected Security Assessment MCP — Security posture assessment ## When to Use This Skill Use this skill when: - Optimizing AWS costs and reducing spending - Estimating costs before deployment - Monitoring application and infrastructure performance - Setting up observability and alerting - Analyzing spending patterns and trends - Investigating operational issues - Auditing AWS activity and changes - Assessing security posture - Implementing operational excellence ## Cost Optimization Best Practices Confirm payer/member account, region, currency, billing period and cost basis (unblended/amortized/net) before comparing totals. Billing data can lag; budgets/alerts are not hard spend caps. Cost Explorer/Logs Insights queries may themselves incur charges. Missing CloudTrail events do not prove no action occurred: check retention, region and event coverage. EC2 guest memory requires agent/custom metrics. Deletion, commitments, alarm actions and rightsizing require a scoped approved change and recovery analysis; do not remove backups solely because they look unused. ### Pre-Deployment Cost Estimation **Always estimate costs before deploying**: 1. Use **AWS Pricing MCP** to estimate resource costs 2. Compare pricing across different regions 3. Evaluate alternative service options 4. Calculate expected monthly costs 5. Plan for scaling and growth **Example workflow**: ``` "Estimate the monthly cost of running a Lambda function with 1 million invocations, 512MB memory, 3-second duration in us-east-1" ``` ### Cost Analysis and Optimization **Regular cost reviews**: 1. Use **Cost Explorer MCP** to analyze spending trends 2. Identify cost anomalies and unexpected charges 3. Review costs by service, region, and environment 4. Compare actual vs. budgeted costs 5. Generate cost optimization recommendations **Cost optimization strategies**: - Right-size over-provisioned resources - Use appropriate storage classes (S3, EBS) - Implement auto-scaling for dynamic workloads - Leverage Savings Plans and Reserved Instances - Delete unused resources and snapshots - Use cost allocation tags effectively ### Budget Monitoring **Track spending against budgets**: 1. Use **Billing and Cost Management MCP** to monitor budgets 2. Set up budget alerts for threshold breaches 3. Review budget utilization regularly 4. Adjust budgets based on trends 5. Implement cost controls and governance ## Monitoring and Observability Best Practices ### CloudWatch Metrics and Alarms **Implement comprehensive monitoring**: 1. Use **CloudWatch MCP** to query metrics and logs 2. Set up alarms for critical metrics: - CPU and memory utilization - Error rates and latency - Queue depths and processing times - API gateway throttling - Lambda errors and timeouts 3. Create CloudWatch dashboards for visualization 4. Use log insights for troubleshooting **Example alarm scenarios**: - Lambda error rate > 1% - EC2 CPU utilization > 80% - API Gateway 4xx/5xx error spike - DynamoDB throttled requests - ECS task failures ### Application Performance Monitoring **Monitor application health**: 1. Use **CloudWatch Application Signals MCP** for APM 2. Track service-level objectives (SLOs) 3. Monitor application dependencies 4. Identify performance bottlenecks 5. Set up distributed tracing ### Container and Kubernetes Monitoring **For containerized workloads**: 1. Use **AWS Managed Prometheus MCP** for metrics 2. Monitor container resource utilization 3. Track pod and node health 4. Create PromQL queries for custom metrics 5. Set up alerts for container anomalies ## Audit and Security Best Practices ### CloudTrail Activity Analysis **Audit AWS activity**: 1. Use **CloudTrail MCP** to analyze API activity 2. Track who made changes to resources 3. Investigate security incidents 4. Monitor for suspicious activity patterns 5. Audit compliance with policies **Common audit scenarios**: - "Who deleted this S3 bucket?" - "Show all IAM role changes in the last 24 hours" - "List failed login attempts" - "Find all actions by a specific user" - "Track modifications to security groups" ### Security Assessment **Regular security reviews**: 1. Use **Well-Architected Security Assessment MCP** 2. Assess security posture against best practices 3. Identify security gaps and vulnerabilities 4. Implement recommended security improvements 5. Document security compliance **Security assessment areas**: - Identity and Access Management (IAM) - Detective controls and monitoring - Infrastructure protection - Data protection and encryption - Incident response preparedness ## Using MCP Servers Effectively ### Cost Analysis Workflow 1. **Pre-deployment**: Use Pricing MCP to estimate costs 2. **Post-deployment**: Use Billing MCP to track actual spending 3. **Analysis**: Use Cost Explorer MCP for detailed cost analysis 4. **Optimization**: Implement recommendations from Cost Explorer ### Monitoring Workflow 1. **Setup**: Configure CloudWatch metrics and alarms 2. **Monitor**: Use CloudWatch MCP to track key metrics 3. **Analyze**: Use Application Signals for APM insights 4. **Troubleshoot**: Query CloudWatch Logs for issue resolution ### Security Workflow 1. **Audit**: Use CloudTrail MCP to review activity 2. **Assess**: Use Well-Architected Security Assessment 3. **Remediate**: Implement security recommendations 4. **Monitor**: Track security events via CloudWatch ### MCP Usage Best Practices 1. **Cost Awareness**: Check pricing before deploying resources 2. **Proactive Monitoring**: Set up alarms for critical metrics 3. **Regular Reviews**: Analyze costs and performance weekly 4. **Audit Trails**: Review CloudTrail logs for compliance 5. **Security First**: Run security assessments regularly 6. **Optimize Continuously**: Act on cost and performance recommendations ## Operational Excellence Guidelines ### Cost Optimization - **Tag Everything**: Use consistent cost allocation tags - **Review Monthly**: Analyze spending trends and anomalies - **Right-size**: Match resources to actual usage - **Automate**: Use auto-scaling and scheduling - **Monitor Budgets**: Set alerts for cost overruns ### Monitoring and Alerting - **Critical Metrics**: Alert on business-critical metrics - **Noise Reduction**: Fine-tune thresholds to reduce false positives - **Actionable Alerts**: Ensure alerts have clear remediation steps - **Dashboard Visibility**: Create dashboards for key stakeholders - **Log Retention**: Balance cost and compliance needs ### Security and Compliance - **Least Privilege**: Grant minimum required permissions - **Audit Regularly**: Review CloudTrail logs for anomalies - **Encrypt Data**: Use encryption at rest and in transit - **Assess Continuously**: Run security assessments frequently - **Incident Response**: Have procedures for security events ## Additional Resources For detailed operational patterns and best practices, refer to the comprehensive reference: **File**: `references/operations-patterns.md` This reference includes: - Cost optimization strategies - Monitoring and alerting patterns - Observability best practices - Security and compliance guidelines - Troubleshooting workflows ## CloudWatch Alarms Reference **File**: `references/cloudwatch-alarms.md` Common alarm configurations for: - Lambda functions - EC2 instances - RDS databases - DynamoDB tables - API Gateway - ECS services - Application Load Balancers ## Limitations - Use this skill only when the task clearly matches its upstream source and local project context. - Verify commands, generated code, dependencies, credentials, and external service behavior before applying changes. - Do not treat examples as a substitute for environment-specific tests, security review, or user approval for destructive or costly actions. --- Source attribution: zxkane/aws-skills contributors, via Agentic Awesome Skills Original project: https://github.com/zxkane/aws-skills License: MIT + CC-BY-4.0 License information: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Original upstream instructions; downloaded from Mega AI Hub. ## Upstream license notice MIT License Copyright (c) 2025 Mengxin Zhu Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE. # Mega AI Hub resource metadata Creator / publisher: zxkane/aws-skills contributors, via Agentic Awesome Skills Original project: https://github.com/zxkane/aws-skills Attribution basis: Recorded upstream repository Fields of work: Development & Engineering Roles: DevOps / SRE Specialties: Specialty not specified Tools: Tool not specified Country applicability: Country not specified Classification basis: Dave AI task classification from package title, description, and declared metadata Instruction SHA-256: 52ed6f63fe1d6dd021b8b5769a981b6afd337e8c41c5ce2b2f7e05b405e0fcf0 Metadata reviewed: 2026-10-27 This metadata supersedes earlier Mega AI Hub catalog attribution. Original instruction and supporting files are preserved.