cloud-finops-skill

A comprehensive Cloud FinOps Agent Skill built by OptimNow. Provides expert, framework-aligned guidance on cloud financial management across AWS, Azure, GCP, Anthropic, Bedrock, Azure OpenAI, Vertex AI, Databricks, Snowflake, OCI, AI workloads, GenAI capacity planning, and tagging governance — grounded in hands-on enterprise delivery experience.

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What this skill provides

This skill enables AI agents to deliver expert FinOps guidance across multiple domains:

• FinOps for AI - LLM inference economics, token cost management, agentic cost patterns, unit economics for AI features, ROI frameworks, and AI cost governance
• AI value management - AI Investment Council, stage gate model, incremental funding, practice operations, cross-functional governance for AI investments
• GenAI capacity planning - provisioned vs shared capacity, traffic shape analysis, spillover mechanics, throughput units, cross-provider comparison
• Anthropic billing - Claude Opus, Sonnet, Haiku pricing, Fast mode, long-context cliffs, prompt caching, Batch API, governance controls
• AWS Bedrock - model pricing, provisioned throughput, batch inference, cost allocation
• Azure OpenAI Service - PTU reservations, GPT model pricing, spillover, fine-tuning costs
• GCP Vertex AI - Gemini pricing, provisioned throughput, batch prediction, cost visibility
• AWS FinOps - CUR setup, Cost Explorer, EC2 rightsizing, Reserved Instances vs Savings Plans, cost allocation, SCPs, and AWS-native quick wins
• Azure FinOps - Azure Cost Management, Reservations, Azure Policy for governance, FinOps Toolkit, Azure Hybrid Benefit, and Azure-specific optimization patterns
• GCP FinOps - Compute Engine, Cloud SQL, GCS, BigQuery, networking optimization
• Tagging Governance - tag taxonomy design, naming conventions, IaC enforcement, virtual tagging, MCP-based automation, and compliance monitoring
• FinOps Framework - full FinOps Foundation framework, 22 capabilities, maturity model
• Databricks - cluster optimization, jobs, Spark, Unity Catalog costs
• Snowflake - warehouse optimization, query tuning, storage, credits
• OCI - compute, storage, networking optimization

All guidance is framed through OptimNow's methodology: connecting cost to business value, diagnosing before prescribing, and recommending progressive actions matched to organizational maturity.

What makes this skill different from generic FinOps resources

• AI cost management is a first-class domain, not an afterthought
• OptimNow methodology shapes reasoning - visibility before optimization, showback before chargeback, quick wins before structural change
• Practical over theoretical - real anti-patterns, real implementation steps, real decision frameworks
• Tool-aware - references OptimNow's open-source tools (MCP for Tagging, AI ROI Calculator, FinOps Maturity Assessment) where genuinely relevant
• Maturity-sensitive - recommendations match the organization's current state, not a generic best practice

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Directory structure

cloud-finops-skills/
├── README.md                                   ← This file
├── INSTALLATION.md                             ← Setup instructions
├── LICENSE.md                                  ← MIT
└── cloud-finops/                               ← Install this folder
    ├── SKILL.md                                ← Entry point + domain router
    └── references/
        ├── optimnow-methodology.md             ← OptimNow reasoning philosophy
        ├── finops-for-ai.md                    ← AI cost management
        ├── finops-ai-value-management.md       ← AI investment governance
        ├── finops-genai-capacity.md            ← GenAI capacity models (cross-provider)
        ├── finops-anthropic.md                 ← Anthropic billing + governance
        ├── finops-aws.md                       ← AWS-specific FinOps
        ├── finops-bedrock.md                   ← AWS Bedrock billing
        ├── finops-azure.md                     ← Azure-specific FinOps
        ├── finops-azure-openai.md              ← Azure OpenAI Service (PTUs)
        ├── finops-gcp.md                       ← GCP-specific FinOps
        ├── finops-vertexai.md                  ← GCP Vertex AI billing
        ├── finops-tagging.md                   ← Tagging and naming governance
        ├── finops-framework.md                 ← Full FinOps Foundation framework
        ├── finops-databricks.md                ← Databricks optimization
        ├── finops-snowflake.md                 ← Snowflake optimization
        └── finops-oci.md                       ← OCI optimization

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Installation

See INSTALLATION.md for detailed instructions.

Quick start (Claude Code):

cp -r cloud-finops /path/to/your/skills/directory/

For Agent Smith (OptimNow's FinOps agent): The skill is pre-integrated into Agent Smith. No manual installation required.

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Usage examples

FinOps for AI

• "We're spending $40K/month on AWS Bedrock and have no idea which features are driving it. Where do we start?"
• "How do I calculate ROI for our AI support bot?"
• "Our inference costs doubled last month - what are the most likely causes?"
• "Should we use Claude Haiku or Sonnet for our classification pipeline?"

AWS FinOps

• "We have $80K/month in EC2. Should we buy Reserved Instances or Savings Plans?"
• "How do I set up CUR for multi-account cost allocation?"
• "What are the quick wins I should do before any commitment purchase?"
• "How do I enforce mandatory tags without breaking existing deployments?"

Azure FinOps

• "What's the Azure equivalent of AWS CUR?"
• "How do Azure Reservations compare to Azure Savings Plans?"
• "We need to enforce tagging across 15 subscriptions - what's the right approach?"
• "How do we use Azure Hybrid Benefit to reduce our VM costs?"

Tagging governance

• "What are the minimum mandatory tags we should require?"
• "How do we enforce tags without blocking deployments?"
• "What's the difference between physical and virtual tagging?"
• "How does OptimNow's MCP for Tagging work?"

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Contributing

Contributions welcome. To suggest improvements:

1. Review the source material at finops.org/framework
2. Identify gaps or inaccuracies in existing reference files
3. Submit a pull request with proposed changes
4. For new domains, follow the structure of existing reference files

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About OptimNow

OptimNow is a boutique FinOps consultancy helping organizations connect cloud and AI spend to measurable business value. Based in France with European reach.

• Website: optimnow.io
• LinkedIn: OptimNow
• GitHub: github.com/OptimNow

Tools built by OptimNow:

• AI Cost Readiness Assessment
• AI ROI Calculator
• MCP for Tagging
• FinOps Maturity Assessment

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License

MIT License. See LICENSE.md.

This skill is independently maintained and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the FinOps Foundation.