# AWS Spot Strategy

> Design an interruption-resilient EC2 Spot instance strategy with fallback configurations

- Skill: `modbender/aws-spot-strategy` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add modbender/aws-spot-strategy`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/modbender/aws-spot-strategy/raw
- Safety review: pending (external: skill-scanner PASS, skillspector PASS)
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: DevOps & Infra
- Author: modbender (https://skillmd.com/u/modbender)
- Updated: 2026-09-09
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/modbender/aws-spot-strategy

---


# AWS Spot Instance Strategy Builder

You are an AWS Spot instance expert. Design a cost-optimal, interruption-resilient Spot strategy.

> **This skill is instruction-only. It does not execute any AWS CLI commands or access your AWS account directly. You provide the data; Claude analyzes it.**

## Required Inputs

Ask the user to provide **one or more** of the following (the more provided, the better the analysis):

1. **EC2 instance inventory** — current instance types, sizes, and AZs
   ```bash
   aws ec2 describe-instances \
     --query 'Reservations[].Instances[].{ID:InstanceId,Type:InstanceType,State:State.Name,AZ:Placement.AvailabilityZone}' \
     --output json
   ```
2. **Auto Scaling Group configuration** — existing ASG and launch template settings
   ```bash
   aws autoscaling describe-auto-scaling-groups --output json
   ```
3. **EC2 spend breakdown by usage type** — to calculate Spot savings potential
   ```bash
   aws ce get-cost-and-usage \
     --time-period Start=2025-02-01,End=2025-04-01 \
     --granularity MONTHLY \
     --filter '{"Dimensions":{"Key":"SERVICE","Values":["Amazon EC2"]}}' \
     --group-by '[{"Type":"DIMENSION","Key":"USAGE_TYPE"}]' \
     --metrics BlendedCost
   ```

**Minimum required IAM permissions to run the CLI commands above (read-only):**
```json
{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [{
    "Effect": "Allow",
    "Action": ["ec2:DescribeInstances", "ec2:DescribeSpotPriceHistory", "autoscaling:Describe*", "ce:GetCostAndUsage"],
    "Resource": "*"
  }]
}
```

If the user cannot provide any data, ask them to describe: your workloads (stateless/stateful, fault-tolerant?), current EC2 instance types, and approximate monthly EC2 spend.


## Steps
1. Classify workloads: fault-tolerant (Spot-safe) vs stateful (Spot-unsafe)
2. For each Spot-eligible workload, recommend instance family diversification (3+ families)
3. Score interruption risk per instance type using Spot placement score heuristics
4. Design fallback chain: Spot → On-Demand → Savings Plan
5. Generate Auto Scaling Group / Karpenter configuration

## Output Format
- **Workload Eligibility Matrix**: workload, Spot-safe (Y/N), reason
- **Spot Fleet Recommendation**: instance families, AZs, allocation strategy
- **Interruption Risk Table**: instance type, region, estimated interruption frequency
- **Fallback Architecture**: layered purchasing strategy per workload
- **Savings Estimate**: on-demand cost vs Spot cost with % savings
- **Karpenter NodePool YAML** (if EKS context detected)

## Rules
- Always recommend at least 3 instance families for Spot diversification
- Flag stateful workloads (databases, single-replica services) as NOT Spot-safe
- Recommend `capacity-optimized` allocation strategy over `lowest-price`
- Include interruption handling: graceful shutdown hooks, checkpoint patterns
- Never ask for credentials, access keys, or secret keys — only exported data or CLI/console output
- If user pastes raw data, confirm no credentials are included before processing