Aws Cost Scan

---
name: aws-cost-scan
description: Use when asked to find AWS waste, cut cloud spend, do a cost review/FinOps pass, explain a bill spike, or hunt idle/orphaned resources (unused load balancers, unattached EIPs, orphan EBS volumes & old snapshots, over-provisioned node pools, NAT/cross-AZ traffic, never-expiring logs, RI/Savings Plans gaps, EKS extended-support fees, stale AMIs). Read-only investigation that produces a prioritized, evidence-backed savings checklist — it never deletes anything.
---

# aws-cost-scan

A read-only sweep that turns "the AWS bill is too high" into a *prioritized,
evidence-backed savings checklist* — each line naming the resource, the monthly
waste, why it's safe (or not) to act, and the exact disposal action for a human to
run. The enemy is the confident-but-wrong cut: a load balancer with "no traffic"
that fronts a once-a-day batch job, a snapshot that's the only copy of a deleted
volume. This skill forces you to prove a resource is idle *and* unreferenced before
recommending its removal.

## When to use

Reach for this when someone asks to:

- find waste / "where is the money going" / cut the AWS bill
- do a cost-optimization or FinOps review of an account or region
- explain a month-over-month cost spike (pair with Cost Explorer grouping)
- audit for idle/orphaned resources after a migration, teardown, or cluster removal

Do **not** use it to *delete* resources, to right-size application code, or to design… install to load the full skill