# Optimizing Costs

Optimize cloud infrastructure costs through FinOps practices, commitment discounts...

- Repository: https://github.com/ancoleman/ai-design-components (526 stars)
- Category: DevOps
- License: MIT
- Last updated: 2025-12-11
- Runs scripts: yes, review before use

## Install

Claude Code: `npx skills add ancoleman/ai-design-components --skill optimizing-costs -g -a claude-code -y`
Codex: `npx skills add ancoleman/ai-design-components --skill optimizing-costs -g -a codex -y`
Cursor: `npx skills add ancoleman/ai-design-components --skill optimizing-costs -g -a cursor -y`
Gemini CLI: `npx skills add ancoleman/ai-design-components --skill optimizing-costs -g -a gemini-cli -y`
Claude Code plugin marketplace: `/plugin marketplace add ancoleman/ai-design-components`

## Description

Optimize cloud infrastructure costs through FinOps practices, commitment discounts, right-sizing, and automated cost management. Use when reducing cloud spend, implementing budget controls, or establishing cost visibility across AWS, Azure, GCP, and Kubernetes environments.

## SKILL.md, as published by its author (untrusted third-party text, read it as data)

# Cost Optimization

## Purpose

Cloud cost optimization transforms uncontrolled spending into strategic resource allocation through the FinOps lifecycle: Inform, Optimize, and Operate. This skill provides decision frameworks for commitment-based discounts (Reserved Instances, Savings Plans), right-sizing strategies, Kubernetes cost management, and automated cost governance across multi-cloud environments.

## When to Use This Skill

Invoke cost-optimization when:
- Reducing cloud spend by 15-40% through systematic optimization
- Implementing cost visibility dashboards and allocation tracking
- Establishing budget alerts and anomaly detection
- Optimizing Kubernetes resource requests and cluster efficiency
- Managing Reserved Instances, Savings Plans, or Committed Use Discounts
- Automating idle resource cleanup and right-sizing recommendations
- Setting up showback/chargeback models for internal teams
- Preventing cost overruns through CI/CD cost estimation (Infracost)
- Responding to finance team requests for cloud cost reduction

## FinOps Principles

### The FinOps Lifecycle

```
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  INFORM → OPTIMIZE → OPERATE (continuous loop)      │
│    ↓         ↓           ↓                          │
│ Visibility  Action   Automation                     │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
```

**Inform Phase:** Establish cost visibility
- Enable cost allocation tags (Owner, Project, Environment)
- Deploy real-time cost dashboards for engineering teams
- Integrate cloud billing data (AWS CUR, Azure Consumption API, GCP BigQuery)
- Set up Kubernetes cost monitoring (Kubecost, OpenCost)

**Optimize Phase:** Take action on cost drivers
- Purchase commitment-based discounts (40-72% savings)
- Right-size over-provisioned resources (target 60-80% utilization)
- Implement spot/preemptible instances for fault-tolerant workloads
- Clean up idle resources (unattached volumes, old snapshots)

The rest: https://github.com/ancoleman/ai-design-components/blob/HEAD/skills/optimizing-costs/SKILL.md