Azure Cost Optimization Skill

Analyze Azure subscriptions to identify cost savings through orphaned resource cleanup, rightsizing, and optimization recommendations based on actual usage data.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when the user asks to:

• Optimize Azure costs or reduce spending
• Analyze Azure subscription for cost savings
• Generate cost optimization report
• Find orphaned or unused resources
• Rightsize Azure VMs, containers, or services
• Identify where they're overspending in Azure
• Optimize Redis costs specifically - See Azure Redis Cost Optimization for Redis-specific analysis

Rules

• Read-only analysis first — never delete or modify resources during the assessment phase; remediation is a separate user-approved step
• Validate prerequisites before starting (Azure CLI authenticated, costmanagement + resource-graph extensions, azqr installed, Cost Management Reader + Monitoring Reader + Reader roles)
• Use real data — recommendations must be grounded in actual cost queries and utilization metrics, not assumptions
• Cite sources — every savings estimate must reference the underlying cost query or pricing API result (audit trail in output/cost-query-result<timestamp>.json)
• Classify safely — mark recommendations as Safe / Review / Risky; never auto-apply destructive operations
• Redis-specific scope — when the user asks about Redis only, follow Azure Redis Cost Optimization instead of the general subscription workflow
• Save artifacts to output/costoptimizereport<timestamp>.md and the audit trail JSON
• Out of scope: deploying resources (use azure-deploy), security issues (use azure-compliance), general diagnostics (use azure-diagnostics)

Instructions

High-level step list (full procedure in references/workflow-steps.md):

Branching rule: when the user mentions Redis, Azure Cache for Redis, or Azure Managed Redis, follow the Redis-specific path (Steps 1.5 → 1.6 → Redis-only analysis) instead of the general subscription workflow.

Output

The skill generates:

1. Cost Optimization Report (output/costoptimizereport<timestamp>.md)

   • Executive summary with total costs and top drivers
   • Detailed cost breakdown with Azure Portal links
   • Prioritized recommendations with actual data and estimated savings
   • Implementation commands with safety warnings

2. Cost Query Results (output/cost-query-result<timestamp>.json)

   • Audit trail of all cost queries and responses
   • Validation evidence for recommendations

Important Notes

📋 Reference: Read references/best-practices-notes.md for data classification labels, best practices, common pitfalls, and safety requirements.

SDK Quick References

• Redis Management: .NET

Reference Index

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