Forge Cost

forge-cost: Cost efficiency

Engine: Hybrid — Forge + Google, Cloudflare

Purpose

Tie resource and vendor cost to workloads, ownership, unit economics, budgets, and safe optimization choices.

Deterministic runtime composition

Before loading any provider procedure, run:

Resolve ../../runtime/cli/src/composition-entry.js relative to this SKILL.md, then run:

node "<resolved-absolute-runner-path>" cost compose --workflow audit --root "<repository-root>" --dry-run --json

Add one repeatable --request <provider-or-source> flag for each explicit user request. Add --condition <task-condition> or --risk-surface <surface> only for a task fact you directly proved; never infer one from generic wording. The command above is the default for this audit-oriented module; for implementation use --workflow build, and for a fix, retest, or release gate use --workflow fix, verify, or ship respectively. Read the JSON response, keep the Forge contract at index zero, and resolve paths against the absolute runtime_root reported in that response. Read eager[].runtimePath when entering the module. The full selected[] list is availability/provenance; load only deferred[].runtimePath when the task reaches that concern, in tier order. Refuse any path that escapes the root. Respect every reported suppression and context budget. If missing is non-empty, stop and report the installation as damaged; do not improvise a prose fallback. The runner and specialist content may live in a plugin cache or global installation; never assume they are inside the audited repository.

Resolve and read ../fullstack-forge/references/shared/module-contract.md (applicability, execution, mutation, verification, completion) and ../fullstack-forge/references/shared/evidence-rules.md (statuses, standards, tools, findings via ../fullstack-forge/references/PROTOCOL.md) relative to this module SKILL.md before reporting.

Never hide failed checks or claim that an operation ran when it did not.

Automatic activation signals

Activate when a request or direct repository evidence involves cost efficiency, when the user explicitly names forge-cost, or when discovery proves an applicable boundary.

• Paid infrastructure, APIs, AI, storage, messaging, or observability

When not to activate

• No material variable or fixed operating cost

Automated support

Relevant discovery inputs are:

• architecture profile
• usage measurements
• pricing and billing exports

Deterministic support, bounded evidence only:

• inspect-deployment-config

Agent inspection procedure

1. Attribute current spend: map each paid service, plan, and resource to the workload that uses it.
2. Identify waste: always-on resources for bursty loads, oversized instances, unused capacity, and orphaned resources.
3. Trace the expensive operations: costly queries, chatty integrations, retry amplification, AI token usage, and egress-heavy paths.
4. Compute unit economics where tenancy exists: cost per tenant or user against plan pricing.
5. Project cost at the stated growth scenario and check budgets, alerts, and retention policies for logs and storage.

Manual inspection requirements:

• Review current provider pricing and contractual commitments
• Validate product value and growth assumptions

Stack-specific guidance:

• Include managed-service minimums, egress, support, and observability costs

Evidence to collect

Standards used as criteria:

• FinOps Framework concepts
• provider billing documentation

Common production failures

• Map cost centers to services, tenants, features, environments, and owners
• Inspect idle resources, retention, egress, log cardinality, build minutes, queries, storage lifecycle, and retry amplification
• Define budgets, anomaly alerts, unit metrics, and cost-performance-reliability tradeoffs

Missing-control checks

Each item needs direct evidence or one reasoned status.

• Hosting cost
• Database-plan usage
• Storage growth
• Egress
• AI API usage
• Logging cost
• Monitoring cost
• Always-on services
• Oversized resources
• Inefficient jobs
• Cache cost versus value
• Expensive queries
• Third-party subscriptions
• Per-tenant cost
• Projected cost at scale
• Waste caused by retries
• Large-file storage
• Retention cost

Commands and tools

• Run forge cost audit --json or fullstack-forge cost audit --json when an explicit audit is requested and the CLI is installed. Normal feature work does not require it.

Safe fixes

• Add cost attribution tags and bounded retention
• Remove a proven unused non-production resource through an approved workflow

Approval-required changes

• Deleting resources, changing service tier, retention, reliability, or customer-visible limits

Verification

• Compare normalized billing before and after over a representative period
• Confirm reliability and performance budgets remain satisfied

Completion contract

Follow fullstack-forge/references/shared/completion.md and the limitations below.

Known limitations

• Pricing is time-sensitive and must be verified at audit time