Aws Cost Operations
AWS cost analysis and CloudWatch alarm patterns; MCP servers need plugin install + creds
Test report
- Verdict
- Works with setup
- Score
- Tested
- Jul 31, 2026
- Environment
- Claude Code 2.x (agent harness)
- Upstream re-checked
- Aug 10, 2026 · f2864c1
Cloned the repo, ran the install block under a throwaway HOME (SKILL.md landed at ~/.claude/skills/aws-cost-operations/SKILL.md), parsed the frontmatter with PyYAML (name + 441-char description + context/skills/allowed-tools/hooks keys), and confirmed both referenced files plus the aws-mcp-setup dependency return HTTP 200; grep found no curl|sh, base64 blobs, credential reads or injection text. Trigger phrasings judged: "our AWS bill jumped 40% this month, find what's driving it" (load), "set up CloudWatch alarms for our new Lambda + SQS pipeline in CDK" (load), "estimate the monthly cost of this Fargate service in eu-west-1 before we deploy" (load), "write a CDK construct for a VPC with private subnets and a NAT gateway" (don't load — infra authoring, belongs to aws-cdk-development), "our Stripe subscription costs are climbing, review our SaaS spend" (don't load — not AWS); 5/5 correct. Output test: two artifacts written (BASELINE.md, SKILL_RUN.md) for the same task — alarms for API Gateway → Lambda → SQS+DLQ → worker Lambda → DynamoDB. Baseline produced 8 flat alarms on one SNS topic with hardcoded thresholds (`metricLatency({statistic:'Average'})`, threshold 3000; duration threshold 10000ms); following the skill produced ~13 alarms with `metricLatency({statistic:'p99'})` at 2000ms, `fn.timeout.toMilliseconds() * 0.8` for duration, a ConcurrentExecutions-at-80%-of-reserved alarm and an SQS ApproximateAgeOfOldestMessage alarm the baseline missed entirely, `<service>-<metric>-<severity>` alarm names, split critical/warning SNS topics, treatMissingData, runbook links in descriptions, and a CompositeAlarm. Two real defects: the DynamoDB "throttle" snippet in references/cloudwatch-alarms.md uses `table.metricUserErrors({ dimensions: { Operation: 'GetItem' } })` — UserErrors is not throttling and `dimensions` is not a valid CDK prop (`dimensionsMap` is), so verbatim use is wrong where my baseline's `metricThrottledRequests` was right; and the reference has no DLQ pattern, so strict adherence drops the DLQ-not-empty alarm the baseline included. Not exercised at all: pricing/costexp/cw MCP tools and every `aws ce|cloudwatch|logs|budgets|cloudtrail` command (no servers, no credentials), which is the skill's headline half — hence "setup". Docs mismatch: SKILL.md says the bundled servers are pricing/costexp/cw and that Billing is "not bundled", README says Pricing/Cost Explorer/CloudWatch, but marketplace.json actually configures pricing/billing/cw — so `allowed-tools: mcp__costexp__*` matches nothing installed while the installed `mcp__billing__*` is absent from allowed-tools.
Scored on four weighted criteria — install, triggering, output vs. baseline, docs. How scoring works
- Installs cleanly 4/5
- Triggers reliably 5/5
- Output vs. baseline 6/10
- Docs & honesty 3/5
What Aws Cost Operations does
Guides AWS cost analysis, CloudWatch monitoring, and operational audits, shipping two reference files with concrete CDK alarm snippets and per-service threshold guidance for Lambda, API Gateway, SQS, DynamoDB, RDS, ECS and ALB. Triggers on questions about AWS bills, spend, budgets, pricing estimates, CloudWatch alarms, log queries, or CloudTrail audits. The cost-analysis and audit workflows call MCP servers (pricing, billing, CloudWatch) and the AWS CLI, so they need the plugin install plus AWS credentials; the alarm reference works offline.
How to install Aws Cost Operations
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/zxkane/aws-skills.git /tmp/aws-cost-operations-src
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
cp -R /tmp/aws-cost-operations-src/plugins/aws-cost-ops/skills/aws-cost-operations ~/.claude/skills/aws-cost-operations
# The copy above gives you SKILL.md + references/ (cloudwatch-alarms.md, operations-patterns.md) only.
# The 3 MCP servers the skill body relies on (pricing, billing, cw) are declared in the repo's
# marketplace.json, NOT in the skill dir. To get them, use the plugin route instead:
# /plugin marketplace add zxkane/aws-skills
# /plugin install aws-cost-ops@aws-skills
# Requires: uvx (from uv) on PATH, and AWS credentials with ce:*, cloudwatch:*, logs:*,
# budgets:*, cloudtrail:* read access. SKILL.md also declares a companion skill dependency:
# cp -R /tmp/aws-cost-operations-src/plugins/aws-common/skills/aws-mcp-setup ~/.claude/skills/aws-mcp-setup
# A PreToolUse hook in the frontmatter runs `aws sts get-caller-identity` before any `aws ce` call.
Skills live in ~/.claude/skills/ (global) or .claude/skills/
(per-project). Restart Claude Code after installing.
Commands — how to trigger Aws Cost Operations
-
/aws-cost-operationsAWS cost analysis and CloudWatch alarm patterns; MCP servers need plugin install + creds
It also activates on plain-language prompts like these:
-
Analyze last month's AWS bill for savings -
Set up a CloudWatch alarm for high spend -
Audit CloudTrail logs for suspicious activity
Frequently asked questions
- Is the Aws Cost Operations skill free?
- Yes. The skill itself is free from zxkane/aws-skills. SkillProof publishes the install command and an independent test verdict at no cost.
- Does Aws Cost Operations work with Claude Code?
- We tested it with Claude Code 2.x (agent harness) on Jul 31, 2026. Verdict: Works with setup. Cloned the repo, ran the install block under a throwaway HOME (SKILL.md landed at ~/.claude/skills/aws-cost-operations/SKILL.md), parsed the frontmatter with PyYAML (name + 441-char description + context/skills/allowed-tools/hooks keys), and confirmed both referenced files plus the aws-mcp-setup dependency return HTTP 200; grep found no curl|sh, base64 blobs, credential reads or injection text. Trigger phrasings judged: "our AWS bill jumped 40% this month, find what's driving it" (load), "set up CloudWatch alarms for our new Lambda + SQS pipeline in CDK" (load), "estimate the monthly cost of this Fargate service in eu-west-1 before we deploy" (load), "write a CDK construct for a VPC with private subnets and a NAT gateway" (don't load — infra authoring, belongs to aws-cdk-development), "our Stripe subscription costs are climbing, review our SaaS spend" (don't load — not AWS); 5/5 correct. Output test: two artifacts written (BASELINE.md, SKILL_RUN.md) for the same task — alarms for API Gateway → Lambda → SQS+DLQ → worker Lambda → DynamoDB. Baseline produced 8 flat alarms on one SNS topic with hardcoded thresholds (`metricLatency({statistic:'Average'})`, threshold 3000; duration threshold 10000ms); following the skill produced ~13 alarms with `metricLatency({statistic:'p99'})` at 2000ms, `fn.timeout.toMilliseconds() * 0.8` for duration, a ConcurrentExecutions-at-80%-of-reserved alarm and an SQS ApproximateAgeOfOldestMessage alarm the baseline missed entirely, `<service>-<metric>-<severity>` alarm names, split critical/warning SNS topics, treatMissingData, runbook links in descriptions, and a CompositeAlarm. Two real defects: the DynamoDB "throttle" snippet in references/cloudwatch-alarms.md uses `table.metricUserErrors({ dimensions: { Operation: 'GetItem' } })` — UserErrors is not throttling and `dimensions` is not a valid CDK prop (`dimensionsMap` is), so verbatim use is wrong where my baseline's `metricThrottledRequests` was right; and the reference has no DLQ pattern, so strict adherence drops the DLQ-not-empty alarm the baseline included. Not exercised at all: pricing/costexp/cw MCP tools and every `aws ce|cloudwatch|logs|budgets|cloudtrail` command (no servers, no credentials), which is the skill's headline half — hence "setup". Docs mismatch: SKILL.md says the bundled servers are pricing/costexp/cw and that Billing is "not bundled", README says Pricing/Cost Explorer/CloudWatch, but marketplace.json actually configures pricing/billing/cw — so `allowed-tools: mcp__costexp__*` matches nothing installed while the installed `mcp__billing__*` is absent from allowed-tools.
- What is the Aws Cost Operations SkillProof Score?
- 7.2/10 — installs cleanly 4/5, triggers reliably 5/5, output vs. baseline 6/10, docs & honesty 3/5.
- How do I install Aws Cost Operations?
- Copy the install command from this page, run it in your terminal, and restart Claude Code. Skills live in ~/.claude/skills/ (global) or .claude/skills/ inside a project.
- Can I use Aws Cost Operations with Cursor, Copilot, Gemini CLI, Codex or other AI tools?
- The SKILL.md format is native to Claude (Claude Code, Desktop, claude.ai). The instructions inside adapt to other assistants: Cursor rules, GitHub Copilot instructions, Windsurf rules, Custom GPTs, AGENTS.md for OpenAI Codex, and GEMINI.md for Google Gemini CLI — our conversion guides cover each, and the free converter on the tools page does the wrapping for you.