Cloud Cost Optimizer

---
name: cloud-cost-optimizer
description: >-
  Cuts cloud and hosting bills: finds cost traps (always-on EC2, multi-AZ RDS, NAT gateways, log
  retention, S3 lifecycle, Vercel and Railway tiers), idle or oversized resources, quick wins with
  monthly savings, and billing alerts. Use when the user has a high or rising AWS, GCP or Vercel
  bill, asks where the money goes, or lists their infrastructure and asks what to cut.
---

# Cost Optimizer

Helps identify and reduce cloud infrastructure costs — especially for solo founders who may not realize what they're paying for.

## How It Works

1. Identify cloud services in use
2. Check for common cost traps
3. Detect unused or oversized resources
4. Suggest optimization strategies
5. Recommend cost monitoring tools

## Step-by-Step Procedure

### Step 1: Identify Cloud Services
Check for configuration files:
- `vercel.json` → Vercel (check plan tier)
- `serverless.yml` / `cdk.json` → AWS
- `railway.toml` → Railway
- `fly.toml` → Fly.io
- `docker-compose.yml` → Self-hosted
- `supabase/` → Supabase
- `firebase.json` → Firebase

### Step 2: Common Cost Traps

**AWS:**
- EC2 instances running 24/7 that could be serverless
- RDS instances with multi-AZ when not needed
- S3 buckets without lifecycle policies
- CloudWatch logs with no retention policy
- NAT Gateways (very expensive, often unnecessary for simple apps)
- Elastic IPs not attached to instances

**Vercel:**
- Functions running on Edge when Node.js runtime is cheaper
- Image optimization on high-traffic pages
- Analytics tier vs. free tier

**General:**
- Database connections left open
- Background workers running with no work
- CI/CD pipelines running on every push (vs. only PRs)

### Step 3: Detect in Code
```bash
# Check for cloud SDK usage
grep -rn "aws-sdk\|@aws-sdk\|boto3\|firebase\|supabase" --include="*.ts" --include="*.js" --include="*.py" . | head -20
```

### Step 4: Recommend Cost Monitoring
- **AWS**: Enable AWS Cost Explorer + Budget Alerts
- **Vercel**: Check usage dashboard monthly
- **General**: Set up billing alerts at 50%, 80%, 100% of expected budget

### Step 5: Quick Wins
Present a prioritized list of cost savings, estimated monthly impact, and effort to implement.

## Output Format
```markdown
## 💰 Cost Optimization Report

### Detected Services
- {service}: {estimated tier/cost}

### Quick Wins
1. {action} — est. savings: ${X}/mo — effort: {low/medium/high}

### Cost Monitoring Setup
- {recommended tool}: {how to set up}
```