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:

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