cloud-resource-analyzer
Finds orphaned, idle, and underutilized cloud resources across AWS, GCP, or Azure accounts. Use when someone needs to audit cloud spending, find unused EBS volumes, stale snapshots, unattached IPs, idle load balancers, or oversized RDS instances. Trigger words: cloud waste, orphaned resources, unused volumes, cloud audit, infrastructure cleanup, cloud bill analysis.
Usage
Getting Started
- Install the skill using the command above
- Open your AI coding agent (Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, or Cursor)
- Reference the skill in your prompt
- The AI will use the skill's capabilities automatically
Example Prompts
- "Deploy the latest build to the staging environment and run smoke tests"
- "Check the CI pipeline status and summarize any recent failures"
Documentation
Overview
This skill scans cloud provider accounts for resources that are costing money but providing no value — orphaned storage volumes, stale snapshots, unattached elastic IPs, idle databases, and oversized instances. It produces a prioritized cleanup report with estimated savings and safe deletion scripts.
Instructions
Step 1: Determine Cloud Provider and Access
Check which CLI tools are available and configured:
aws sts get-caller-identity 2>/dev/null && echo "AWS: configured"
gcloud config get-value project 2>/dev/null && echo "GCP: configured"
az account show 2>/dev/null && echo "Azure: configured"
Step 2: Scan for Orphaned Storage (AWS Example)
# Unattached EBS volumes
aws ec2 describe-volumes --filters Name=status,Values=available \
--query 'Volumes[].{ID:VolumeId,Size:Size,Type:VolumeType,Created:CreateTime,Tags:Tags}' \
--output json
# Snapshots older than 90 days with no active AMI
aws ec2 describe-snapshots --owner-ids self \
--query 'Snapshots[?StartTime<=`2025-11-01`].{ID:SnapshotId,Size:VolumeSize,Start:StartTime,Desc:Description}' \
--output json
# Unassociated Elastic IPs
aws ec2 describe-addresses --query 'Addresses[?AssociationId==null].{IP:PublicIp,AllocID:AllocationId}' \
--output json
Step 3: Scan for Idle Compute and Network
# Load balancers with no healthy targets
aws elbv2 describe-target-health --target-group-arn <arn> \
--query 'TargetHealthDescriptions[?TargetHealth.State!=`healthy`]'
# RDS instances with < 5% average CPU over 14 days
aws cloudwatch get-metric-statistics --namespace AWS/RDS \
--metric-name CPUUtilization --period 86400 --statistics Average \
--start-time $(date -d '14 days ago' -Iseconds) --end-time $(date -Iseconds) \
--dimensions Name=DBInstanceIdentifier,Value=<instance-id>
Step 4: Calculate Costs
Use these reference monthly costs for estimates:
- EBS gp3: $0.08/GiB-month
- EBS snapshots: $0.05/GiB-month
- Elastic IP (unattached): $3.60/month
- ALB idle: $16.20/month + LCU charges
- NLB idle: $6.75/month
Step 5: Generate Cleanup Report
Organize findings by category with estimated monthly cost. Sort by savings descending. Include:
- Resource ID, type, region
- Creation date and relevant tags
- Why it's considered orphaned/idle
- Estimated monthly cost
- Recommended action (delete, downsize, archive)
Step 6: Create Safe Cleanup Scripts
Generate scripts with:
--dry-runflag that only lists what would be deleted- Tag-based grace period (tag resources
scheduled-for-deletion: <date+7d>) - Snapshot before delete for EBS volumes
- Confirmation prompts for production resources
Examples
Example 1: Full AWS Audit
User prompt:
Scan our AWS account for wasted cloud resources
Agent output:
Cloud Resource Audit — AWS account 123456789012
Region: us-east-1
────────────────────────────────────────────────
STORAGE WASTE
Unattached EBS volumes: 4 volumes, 450 GiB total $36.00/mo
Stale snapshots (>90 days, no AMI): 23 snapshots, 1.2 TiB $60.00/mo
S3 buckets with no access in 90 days: 2 buckets, 340 GiB $7.82/mo
NETWORK WASTE
Unassociated Elastic IPs: 2 $7.20/mo
ALBs with 0 healthy targets: 1 $16.20/mo
NAT Gateway with <1GB/mo traffic: 1 $32.40/mo
COMPUTE WASTE
RDS db.r5.xlarge at 3% avg CPU: 1 instance $274.00/mo
→ Recommend downsize to db.r5.large saves $137.00/mo
Total monthly waste: $296.62/mo ($3,559/year)
Example 2: Targeted EBS Cleanup
User prompt:
Find and clean up orphaned EBS volumes in us-west-2
Agent output:
Found 3 unattached EBS volumes in us-west-2:
vol-0abc123 200Gi gp3 Created: 2025-05-12 Tag: postgres-backup $16.00/mo
vol-0def456 100Gi gp3 Created: 2025-08-30 Tag: jenkins-workspace $8.00/mo
vol-0ghi789 50Gi gp2 Created: 2025-10-15 Tag: none $5.00/mo
Cleanup script generated: cleanup-ebs-us-west-2.sh
./cleanup-ebs-us-west-2.sh --dry-run # Preview only
./cleanup-ebs-us-west-2.sh --execute # Tag for deletion in 7 days
./cleanup-ebs-us-west-2.sh --force # Delete immediately (creates snapshots first)
Guidelines
- Read-only by default — never delete resources without explicit user confirmation
- Grace period pattern — always recommend tagging resources for deletion before actually deleting
- Snapshot before delete — for EBS volumes, always create a snapshot before removal
- Cross-reference dependencies — check if volumes are referenced by Terraform state, K8s PVCs, or backup policies before flagging
- Multi-region — remind users to scan all active regions, not just the default
- Cost estimates are approximate — based on on-demand pricing; reserved instances or savings plans may differ
- Sensitive data — warn about volumes that might contain database data or secrets
Information
- Version
- 1.0.0
- Author
- terminal-skills
- Category
- DevOps
- License
- Apache-2.0