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. The aws-mcp-setup dependency is auto-loaded — if MCP tools are unavailable, guide the user through that skill's setup flow.

Integrated MCP Servers

This plugin provides 3 MCP servers:

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

Pre-Deployment Cost Estimation

Always estimate costs before deploying:

• Use AWS Pricing MCP to estimate resource costs

• Compare pricing across different regions

• Evaluate alternative service options

• Calculate expected monthly costs

• 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:

• Use Cost Explorer MCP to analyze spending trends

• Identify cost anomalies and unexpected charges

• Review costs by service, region, and environment

• Compare actual vs. budgeted costs

• 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:

• Use Billing and Cost Management MCP to monitor budgets

• Set up budget alerts for threshold breaches

• Review budget utilization regularly

• Adjust budgets based on trends

• Implement cost controls and governance

Monitoring and Observability Best Practices

CloudWatch Metrics and Alarms

Implement comprehensive monitoring:

• Use CloudWatch MCP to query metrics and logs

• 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

• Create CloudWatch dashboards for visualization

• 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:

• Use CloudWatch Application Signals MCP for APM

• Track service-level objectives (SLOs)

• Monitor application dependencies

• Identify performance bottlenecks

• Set up distributed tracing

Container and Kubernetes Monitoring

For containerized workloads:

• Use AWS Managed Prometheus MCP for metrics

• Monitor container resource utilization

• Track pod and node health

• Create PromQL queries for custom metrics

• Set up alerts for container anomalies

Audit and Security Best Practices

CloudTrail Activity Analysis

Audit AWS activity:

• Use CloudTrail MCP to analyze API activity

• Track who made changes to resources

• Investigate security incidents

• Monitor for suspicious activity patterns

• 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:

• Use Well-Architected Security Assessment MCP

• Assess security posture against best practices

• Identify security gaps and vulnerabilities

• Implement recommended security improvements

• 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

• Pre-deployment: Use Pricing MCP to estimate costs

• Post-deployment: Use Billing MCP to track actual spending

• Analysis: Use Cost Explorer MCP for detailed cost analysis

• Optimization: Implement recommendations from Cost Explorer

Monitoring Workflow

• Setup: Configure CloudWatch metrics and alarms

• Monitor: Use CloudWatch MCP to track key metrics

• Analyze: Use Application Signals for APM insights

• Troubleshoot: Query CloudWatch Logs for issue resolution

Security Workflow

• Audit: Use CloudTrail MCP to review activity

• Assess: Use Well-Architected Security Assessment

• Remediate: Implement security recommendations

• Monitor: Track security events via CloudWatch

MCP Usage Best Practices

• Cost Awareness: Check pricing before deploying resources

• Proactive Monitoring: Set up alarms for critical metrics

• Regular Reviews: Analyze costs and performance weekly

• Audit Trails: Review CloudTrail logs for compliance

• Security First: Run security assessments regularly

• 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