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cloudcostwise

Find AWS waste from your terminal or your AI assistant. cloudcostwise runs CloudWise's free waste checks on your own machine, with your own read-only AWS credentials.

Before you run it with AWS credentials:

• It cannot change your account. Every AWS call a scan makes is checked, and anything that isn't a Describe, List, Get, Search or Lookup is refused before it is sent, whatever your credentials allow.
• It talks to AWS and nothing else, unless you say yes. After the first scan in a terminal it asks once whether to share a summary (the CLI version, finding count, estimated savings and checks run, printed before it asks; never account IDs, resource names, regions or ARNs). The default is no. cloudcostwise share --off turns it off for good; CLOUDCOSTWISE_SHARE=no turns it off for that environment. See Sharing a summary.
• Through an AI assistant (MCP), the findings, including your account ID and resource IDs, go to that assistant like any tool output.
• It is not quite free to run. The RI/Savings Plans checks call Cost Explorer, which AWS bills at $0.01 a request, about $0.09 a scan. --no-cost-explorer skips them.
• It stores up to two small files: your share answer in ~/.config/cloudcostwise/share.json and, only if you use cloudcostwise exclude, your exclude list in ~/.config/cloudcostwise/exclude.json (it never leaves your machine). No report, cache or credentials are written.
• Open source (Apache-2.0). Read the code: github.com/cloudwise-app/cloudcostwise.

Least-privilege IAM policy (71 read-only actions): docs/iam-policy.json. See a real scan first, no credentials needed: cloudcostwise.io/sample-scan.

• 20 of CloudWise's 46 service checks: EC2, Lambda, SageMaker, WorkSpaces, Lightsail, EBS, S3, EFS, ECR, RDS, DynamoDB, ElastiCache, Elastic IPs, NAT gateways and load balancers, VPC endpoints, dangling DNS records, CloudWatch logs and dashboards, security posture, RI/Savings Plans opportunities, and Compute Optimizer.

Install and run

pipx install cloudcostwise          # or: uvx cloudcostwise scan
cloudcostwise scan                      # us-east-1 plus your profile's region
cloudcostwise scan --profile prod --regions all
cloudcostwise scan --format json > waste.json
cloudcostwise scan --format json --anonymize > waste-to-share.json   # then read it through before you email it

Options:

Option	Meaning
--profile NAME	AWS profile; otherwise the standard credential chain (env vars, SSO, instance role)
--regions LIST	Comma-separated regions, or all for every enabled region. Account-level checks (CloudWatch dashboards, orphaned DNS records, RI/Savings Plans) run once, in us-east-1, and are skipped with a warning if it is not listed
--format table|markdown|json	Output format
--anonymize	Replace the account ID and the resource IDs, names, ARNs and tag values it recognizes with stable placeholders (account-1, resource-1, ...; the same value always gets the same one). Waste type, region, savings, confidence, action wording, warnings and counts stay. Works with every --format; it runs locally and sends nothing. Anonymizing is not complete: it replaces the identifiers it recognizes, so review the file before you send it
--no-exclude	Ignore your exclude list (see below) for this run and show every finding
--no-cost-explorer	Make no Cost Explorer call. AWS bills those at $0.01 per request and a scan makes about 9. Skips the RI/Savings Plans checks and the one request that reads your last 30 days of spend, so the score falls back to "without spend data"
--parallel N	Regions scanned at once, each in its own process (default 4; --regions all takes ~2–3 min instead of ~10)
--verbose	Show data warnings (checks that could not read a metric report it as missing, never as zero)

Leave resources out of every scan

A finding you have already decided to keep (a bucket that looks idle but is not, a snapshot you retain on purpose) can go on a local exclude list that survives the next run:

cloudcostwise exclude add vol-0abc123def4567890 --reason "kept for the audit"   # a resource ID or a full ARN
cloudcostwise exclude list
cloudcostwise exclude remove vol-0abc123def4567890
cloudcostwise scan --no-exclude                                                   # ignore the list for one run

• Matching: an identical ID always matches. An ARN you add matches a finding whose ID is that resource's name (the scan reports an RDS instance, Lambda function, log group, load balancer or DynamoDB table by its bare name) or an ARN of the same service and name (a load balancer is named by its name, not the hash in its ARN). A bare ID matches the ARN form only when it is AWS-shaped (vol-..., snap-..., i-...); a plain name such as default or mydb matches only an identical ID, so it cannot hide unrelated resources. To hide a resource the scan reports by name, add either its name or its ARN.
• The partner build ignores this list (its CLI and MCP never apply it).
• Every scan reads ~/.config/cloudcostwise/exclude.json fresh (next to share.json) and leaves matching findings out of the table, Markdown, JSON and MCP output and out of the savings total and the score. It says how many under "Left out on purpose" ("2 findings left out by your exclude list (cloudcostwise exclude list)"); the JSON adds excluded_by_list_count and excluded_by_list_resource_ids.
• With --anonymize, the exclusion happens first; the excluded IDs are still scrubbed from warnings and notes, and the JSON list of excluded IDs is emptied, so none is printed; the count stays. --verbose lists the excluded IDs under "Left out on purpose" (table and Markdown) when you are not anonymizing.
• The list is never sent to CloudWise. The optional shared summary counts what the report showed, after exclusions, and never includes the list.
• A missing file is an empty list. A file that cannot be read is treated as empty with a warning on stderr; the scan still runs, and exclude add leaves that file alone until you fix or delete it.

What AWS's free tools don't flag

This tool has 54 proven checks (L2 or above in VALIDATION.md: each fired on a real AWS resource built to trigger it and stayed silent on a healthy twin). 19 of them flag waste that none of AWS's own tools flag, and 12 more go further than the closest AWS check, going by AWS's lists of what its tools cover (Trusted Advisor, Cost Optimization Hub, Compute Optimizer; checked 2026-10-11).

Check	What it finds	Closest AWS check
ami_orphaned_snapshot	EBS snapshots left behind by an AMI that was deregistered	None
classic_lb_migration	Classic Load Balancers that would cost less as an ALB or NLB	None
elasticache_data_tiering_opportunity	Redis OSS or Valkey replication groups on r6g/r7g nodes that would cost less on data-tiering r6gd nodes	None
elasticache_engine_migration	Redis OSS or Memcached clusters that would cost about 20% less on Valkey	None
elasticache_extended_support_cost	ElastiCache engine versions billed the Extended Support surcharge	None
empty_log_group	CloudWatch log groups that have stored nothing for 30+ days	None
idle_lightsail	Stopped or idle Lightsail instances that still bill their bundle price	None
lambda_arm64_migration	Lambda functions that would cost about 20% less on arm64 (Graviton)	None
lambda_provisioned_concurrency_idle	Lambda provisioned concurrency that is paid for and barely used	None
lightsail_idle_load_balancer	Idle Lightsail load balancers	None
lightsail_unattached_disk	Lightsail disks attached to nothing	None
lightsail_unattached_static_ip	Lightsail static IPs attached to nothing	None
low_traffic_alb	Application Load Balancers carrying almost no traffic	None
multiple_eips_per_instance	Extra Elastic IPs on one instance, each billed as a public IPv4 address	None
no_lifecycle_efs	Large EFS file systems with no Infrequent Access or Archive tiering	None
orphaned_ebs_snapshot	EBS snapshots whose source volume no longer exists	None
previous_gen_sagemaker_instance	SageMaker instances on a previous generation with a cheaper current one	None
s3_empty_bucket	Empty S3 buckets left behind for 30+ days	None
stopped_sagemaker_notebook_storage	Stopped SageMaker notebook instances whose ML storage volume keeps billing	None
dynamodb_no_autoscaling	Provisioned DynamoDB tables with no auto scaling on their read or write capacity	Idle recommendation for DynamoDB provisioned tables: Compute Optimizer (and Cost Optimization Hub) look at the same provisioned tables, but only flag ones with no consumed capacity at all. Security Hub CSPM control DynamoDB.1 (tables should scale capacity with demand) checks for auto scaling, but it is an availability control with no cost wording, and its Recover > Resilience category is one Trusted Advisor does not show (checked 2026-11-05).
elasticache_replication_waste	Replicas kept on non-production ElastiCache replication groups, each billed like a full node	Amazon ElastiCache Multi-AZ clusters: Trusted Advisor's check looks at the same clusters with the opposite aim, alerting when Multi-AZ is inactive and recommending at least one replica per shard. Compute Optimizer, the source of Cost Optimization Hub's idle recommendations, calls a Redis or Valkey cluster idle only when all its nodes are idle over 14 days. None of the three tools documents a check for replicas on a non-production group that is in use (checked 2026-11-02).
excessive_retention_log_group	Log groups keeping a year or more of data they are billed to store	Amazon CloudWatch Log Group Retention Period: Trusted Advisor checks log group retention but flags retention shorter than a minimum (365 days by default) for compliance, so long, costly retention passes it.
idle_efs	EFS file systems with no mount targets: nothing can read them, and they still bill	Amazon EFS no mount target redundancy: Trusted Advisor checks EFS mount targets for multi-AZ redundancy, not file systems with no mount targets at all, and EFS is not among the resources Compute Optimizer or Cost Optimization Hub cover.
idle_load_balancer	Idle Application and Network Load Balancers	Idle Load Balancers: Trusted Advisor flags idle Classic Load Balancers only (Business Support+ or higher); its documentation says Application and Network Load Balancers are not included.
incomplete_multipart	Incomplete S3 multipart uploads whose stored parts keep billing	Amazon S3 Incomplete Multipart Upload Abort Configuration: Trusted Advisor flags buckets whose lifecycle configuration lacks a rule to abort incomplete multipart uploads after 7 days; it does not find the incomplete uploads that are already stored and billing.
lambda_excessive_timeout	Lambda timeouts set far above what the function needs	AWS Lambda functions with excessive timeouts: Trusted Advisor flags functions where more than 10% of invocations time out; it does not flag a configured timeout set far above the function's real duration.
no_retention_log_group	Log groups set to never expire, so they grow every month	Amazon CloudWatch Log Group Retention Period: Trusted Advisor checks log group retention but flags retention below a minimum, so a log group set to never expire passes it.
old_ecr_images	Old ECR images still billed for storage	Amazon ECR Repository without lifecycle policy configured: Trusted Advisor checks that an ECR repository has a lifecycle policy; it does not flag the old images already stored.
oversized_sagemaker_endpoint	SageMaker endpoints serving traffic on bigger instances than they need	Idle recommendation for SageMaker endpoints: Compute Optimizer flags SageMaker endpoints with zero invocations over 14 days but gives no rightsizing for endpoints that serve traffic on oversized instances.
s3_rapid_growth	S3 buckets whose Standard storage at least doubled in 30 days and grew by 10 GB or more	Amazon S3 Bucket Lifecycle Policy Configured: Trusted Advisor's S3 cost checks (lifecycle policy configured, incomplete multipart upload abort, version-enabled buckets without a lifecycle policy) look at bucket configuration, not at how fast a bucket is growing. Neither Compute Optimizer nor Cost Optimization Hub lists S3 among its resource types, so none of the three tools documents a check for a bucket that grows quickly (checked 2026-11-03).
untagged_ecr_images	Untagged ECR images still billed for storage	Amazon ECR Repository without lifecycle policy configured: Trusted Advisor checks that an ECR repository has a lifecycle policy; it does not flag the untagged images already stored.

For idle EC2, RDS and NAT gateways, rightsizing and Savings Plans, AWS's tools cover the same ground: use them too. Trusted Advisor's cost checks need a Business, Enterprise or Unified Operations support plan; Cost Optimization Hub and Compute Optimizer are free.

The hosted CloudWise product adds 23 more proven checks that none of AWS's tools flag, across AWS Backup, AppSync, CloudFront, Elastic Beanstalk, FSx, Glue, KMS, Kinesis, Route 53, Step Functions.

Excerpt of a real scan of our test account (cloudcostwise 0.1.15, us-east-1, 2026-10-27). The resources there are deliberately tiny, which is why the amounts are cents:

no_retention_log_group  x6  $0.06/mo
    us-east-1       /aws/lambda/cwfx-clo464-docdb-connect                               $0.01/mo
    us-east-1       /aws/lambda/cwfx-ec-hold-driver                                     $0.01/mo
    us-east-1       /aws/sagemaker/Endpoints/cwfx-w8b-ep-big                            $0.01/mo
    us-east-1       /aws/sagemaker/Endpoints/cwfx-w8b-ep-big-control                    $0.01/mo
    us-east-1       /aws/sagemaker/Endpoints/cwfx-w8b-ep-idle                           $0.01/mo
    us-east-1       /aws/sagemaker/Endpoints/cwfx-w8b-ep-idle-control                   $0.01/mo
old_ecr_images  x1  $0.06/mo
    us-east-1       cwfx-old-ecr-images                                                 $0.06/mo
untagged_ecr_images  x1  $0.02/mo
    us-east-1       cwfx-untagged-ecr-images                                            $0.02/mo
idle_efs  x1  $0.01/mo
    us-east-1       fs-090bfb32bd49de8b7                                                $0.01/mo

Use it from Claude Code, Codex or any MCP client

cloudcostwise mcp runs the same scan as an MCP server (stdio). Then ask your assistant: "Where am I wasting money on AWS?"

The plugin and registry entries start the server with uvx, so install uv first (brew install uv or pipx install uv).

Claude Code, as a plugin (asks for your AWS profile):

/plugin marketplace add cloudwise-app/cloudcostwise
/plugin install cloudcostwise@cloudcostwise

Claude Code, as a plain MCP server:

claude mcp add cloudcostwise -- uvx cloudcostwise mcp
# a specific profile:
claude mcp add cloudcostwise -e AWS_PROFILE=prod -- uvx cloudcostwise mcp

Codex (~/.codex/config.toml):

[mcp_servers.cloudcostwise]
command = "uvx"
args = ["cloudcostwise", "mcp"]
env = { AWS_PROFILE = "prod" }

Tools, all read-only: scan, list_findings, explain_finding, fix_guidance. fix_guidance returns the steps and AWS CLI command as text for you to review; nothing is ever executed. The assistant is told about the Cost Explorer cost before it scans, and include_cost_explorer=false skips it.

Resources are read-only views of the last scan held by the running server. Reading one never starts a scan or calls AWS; before the first scan they say so:

• cloudcostwise://scan/latest: the last scan's findings as JSON.
• cloudcostwise://scan/latest/summary: the one-screen text summary.
• cloudcostwise://checks: the checks and the waste types each can report.

Prompts appear in the slash menu of clients that support them: scan-account (optional profile and regions), explain-finding and fix-guidance (each takes a finding_id). None asks the assistant to change anything in AWS. In Claude Code, /mcp__cloudcostwise__fix-guidance with a finding id from list_findings presents the guidance with the read-only caveat first.

Permissions

The minimal policy the checks use is in docs/iam-policy.json. AWS-managed ReadOnlyAccess also works, but it is much broader than the scan needs. It was derived from a scan of an account with most supported resource types; if a check lacks a permission, the scan says so in its data warnings instead of failing.

One of those reads, lambda:ListFunctions, returns each function's environment variables as plain text. The scan reads only sizing and configuration fields and none of those values reaches a finding, a report or a file, but anyone holding the role can read them.

Sharing a summary (optional)

The default is no. After a scan prints, and only when both your input and output are a terminal, the CLI may ask once whether to share a summary with CloudWise. It prints exactly what it would send before it asks: the CLI version, the number of findings, the estimated monthly savings and the number of checks run. Never account IDs, resource IDs or names, regions, ARNs or tags.

Two further, separate yeses, asked only at that interactive prompt and only if you type an email address: "please email me about this report" (nothing from the report is uploaded; you can produce it yourself with --format markdown) and "tell me when new checks land" (marketing email; we confirm by reply before adding you to anything, and you can withdraw consent at any time by replying to or emailing cloudwise@cloudcostwise.io). Answer once and it does not ask again on that machine.

cloudcostwise share --status       # what is set
cloudcostwise share --off          # never ask, never send
cloudcostwise share --on           # send a summary after each scan
cloudcostwise share --reset        # forget the answer and ask once more

Without a terminal (a pipe, CI, a script) nothing is asked and nothing is sent unless you set CLOUDCOSTWISE_SHARE=yes (or no) yourself, or write ~/.config/cloudcostwise/share.json. Those settings carry the summary only (the CLI version, finding count, estimated savings and checks run, plus whether the scan came from the CLI or MCP), never an email address. The MCP server never prompts, its scan tool has no sharing parameter, and it sends only when one of those settings says yes. A failed or slow connection is ignored (about 3 seconds at most, after the results are printed).

How the numbers are counted

Each finding shows an estimated monthly saving. Advisory waste types, ones CloudWise could not validate against a real AWS resource, are listed but never added to the total.

For consultancies and MSPs

The partner licence runs on your own machine like this tool: the other 26 service checks, one scan across every client account, and a client report under your firm's name. One price per firm, unlimited client accounts: https://cloudcostwise.io/partners?utm_source=cloudcostwise&utm_medium=readme.

What the hosted product adds

The other 26 service checks (Glue, ECS, Step Functions, Backup, CloudFront, commitments and more), history and trends, alerts, and safe automated fixes: https://cloudcostwise.io/connect?utm_source=cloudcostwise&utm_medium=cli.

Tell us where it's wrong

A false positive, a miss, or a dollar figure that looks off: post it in issue #1, or email cloudwise@cloudcostwise.io if you'd rather not post in public. The waste types and counts from your scan are enough. Leave out account IDs and resource names. Every report gets a reply, and a confirmed false positive gets fixed in the next release.

License

Open source under the Apache License 2.0 (see LICENSE.md). 0.1.18 and later are Apache-2.0. 0.1.17 and earlier are FSL-1.1-ALv2 (each becomes Apache-2.0 two years after it ships).

How we know it's right

See VALIDATION.md: the validation level of every waste type this tool reports, from L0 (unit-tested) to L2 (fired on a real AWS resource and stayed silent on a healthy twin) and beyond.