Audit and reduce infrastructure and tooling costs without sacrificing reliability or velocity. Use this skill when reviewing monthly cloud or SaaS spend, finding unused resources, rightsizing infrastructure, negotiating vendor contracts, deciding what to consolidate, or planning for budget cuts. Triggers on cost optimization, cloud spend, SaaS spend, rightsizing, unused resources, FinOps, infrastructure audit, vendor consolidation, budget cut, cost review. Also triggers when finance flags rising costs or when a contract renewal is up.
67
81%
Does it follow best practices?
Impact
—
No eval scenarios have been run
Passed
No known issues
Quality
Discovery
100%Based on the skill's description, can an agent find and select it at the right time? Clear, specific descriptions lead to better discovery.
This is a strong skill description that clearly articulates its purpose, lists concrete actions, provides explicit trigger guidance with a 'Use this skill when...' clause, and includes a comprehensive set of natural trigger terms. It uses proper third-person voice and covers both common and edge-case scenarios (e.g., finance flagging costs, contract renewals). The description is thorough without being unnecessarily verbose.
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Specificity | Lists multiple specific concrete actions: 'reviewing monthly cloud or SaaS spend', 'finding unused resources', 'rightsizing infrastructure', 'negotiating vendor contracts', 'deciding what to consolidate', 'planning for budget cuts'. These are clear, actionable capabilities. | 3 / 3 |
Completeness | Clearly answers both 'what' (audit and reduce infrastructure/tooling costs) and 'when' (explicit 'Use this skill when...' clause plus additional trigger scenarios like finance flagging costs or contract renewals). Both dimensions are thoroughly addressed. | 3 / 3 |
Trigger Term Quality | Excellent coverage of natural trigger terms users would say: 'cost optimization', 'cloud spend', 'SaaS spend', 'rightsizing', 'unused resources', 'FinOps', 'infrastructure audit', 'vendor consolidation', 'budget cut', 'cost review', 'contract renewal', 'rising costs'. These are terms users would naturally use. | 3 / 3 |
Distinctiveness Conflict Risk | Occupies a clear niche around infrastructure/tooling cost optimization and FinOps. The combination of cloud spend, vendor contracts, rightsizing, and budget planning creates a distinct domain unlikely to conflict with general infrastructure management or finance skills. | 3 / 3 |
Total | 12 / 12 Passed |
Implementation
62%Reviews the quality of instructions and guidance provided to agents. Good implementation is clear, handles edge cases, and produces reliable results.
This is a well-structured strategic skill with a clear framework (5 levers) and a thorough 10-step workflow. Its main strengths are workflow clarity and comprehensive coverage of cost optimization scenarios. Its weaknesses are length (could benefit from splitting detailed sections into reference files) and lack of concrete executable artifacts like CLI commands, template documents, or example calculations that would make it more immediately actionable.
Suggestions
Add concrete executable examples: specific cloud CLI commands (e.g., AWS Cost Explorer queries, `gcloud billing` commands), a template cost-tracking spreadsheet structure, or an example output document showing what a completed cost optimization report looks like.
Move 'Common opportunities by category' and 'Failure patterns' sections into separate reference files (e.g., `references/opportunities-by-category.md`, `references/failure-patterns.md`) to reduce the main skill's length and improve progressive disclosure.
Include a concrete example calculation showing the 5 levers applied to a real-ish line item (e.g., 'Monthly AWS EC2 spend: $8,000 → Eliminate idle: -$1,200, Rightsize: -$2,000, Reserved: -$1,500 = $3,300/month saved').
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Conciseness | The skill is well-organized and mostly efficient, but it's quite long (~300+ lines) with some sections that could be tightened. The 'failure patterns' section lists 12 anti-patterns with explanations that, while useful, add significant length. The 'common opportunities by category' section partially duplicates guidance already covered in the 5 levers framework. Some editorial commentary ('Post-pandemic, many are hungry for retention. Ask.') adds flavor but not actionable value. | 2 / 3 |
Actionability | The skill provides a clear framework (5 levers) and a structured 10-step workflow with specific guidance like '60-90 days before renewal' and a prioritization 2x2 matrix. However, it lacks concrete executable artifacts—no scripts, no template spreadsheets, no specific CLI commands for cloud cost tools (e.g., `aws ce get-cost-and-usage`), no example output document. The guidance is specific in direction but not copy-paste ready. | 2 / 3 |
Workflow Clarity | The 10-step workflow is clearly sequenced and logically ordered from data gathering through execution to ongoing governance. Steps 6 and 7 include validation checkpoints (monitor for unexpected impact, test in staging, roll out incrementally, validate cost impact). The prioritization step (Step 5) with the 2x2 matrix and risk assessment provides a clear decision framework. For a strategic/process skill (not a destructive technical operation), the validation is appropriate. | 3 / 3 |
Progressive Disclosure | The skill references one external file (`references/cloud-audit-checklist.md`) and one other skill (`pm-spec-writing`), showing some progressive disclosure. However, the body itself is quite long with sections like 'common opportunities by category' and 'failure patterns' that could be split into reference files. The 'when NOT to use' section nicely cross-references other skills. The bundle has no files provided, so the referenced checklist cannot be verified. | 2 / 3 |
Total | 9 / 12 Passed |
Validation
90%Checks the skill against the spec for correct structure and formatting. All validation checks must pass before discovery and implementation can be scored.
Validation — 10 / 11 Passed
Validation for skill structure
| Criteria | Description | Result |
|---|---|---|
frontmatter_unknown_keys | Unknown frontmatter key(s) found; consider removing or moving to metadata | Warning |
Total | 10 / 11 Passed | |
8e70d03
Table of Contents
If you maintain this skill, you can claim it as your own. Once claimed, you can manage eval scenarios, bundle related skills, attach documentation or rules, and ensure cross-agent compatibility.