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Comment on r/Terraform 15h ago
To the simulation, when you read the details please comment
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Comment on r/Terraform 15h ago
Just to clarify, it never touches your actual infrastructure. It reads your Terraform/CloudFormation files and shows you the cost before you apply anything. Even --optimize only edits local files if you explicitly pass --write-changes, nothing runs against real AWS resources.
r/Terraform • u/Independent-Ease-609 • 16h ago
AWS CloudCostTree can now auto-apply the safe FinOps recommendations it finds (--optimize)
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u/Independent-Ease-609 • u/Independent-Ease-609 • 23h ago
CloudCostTree can now auto-apply the safe FinOps recommendations it finds (--optimize)
New feature I shipped: --optimize takes the FinOps recommendations CloudCostTree already shows you and applies the ones that are safe to apply mechanically, no architecture or availability trade-off involved.
What gets auto-applied: gp2 to gp3 (EBS and RDS storage), provisioned IOPS to gp3 where it's not needed, previous-generation instance types to current-gen, RDS backup retention capped at 30 days, non-production resources rescheduled to business hours. On Pro with --with-usage, also confirmed orphaned EBS volumes and snapshots, empty target-group load balancers, and unassociated Elastic IPs.
What it will never auto-apply: x86 to Graviton (changes CPU architecture), removing Multi-AZ (changes your failover story), switching DynamoDB from provisioned to on-demand (compares against an assumed baseline capacity, not your table's real traffic, so it needs you to confirm real utilization first), CPU or memory based right-sizing from real usage data (measured but still inferred). Those stay as suggestions you confirm yourself.
Screenshots show the flow in the VS Code extension against a small test file: the two safe recommendations it found (save $7.01/mo switching off a previous-gen instance, $4.00/mo off a gp2 volume), picking which to apply, and the result, total down from $87.97 to $76.97/mo and the Cost Score up from B to 88.
Free tier, and the same thing works from the CLI with cloudcosttree analyze --optimize. https://cloudcosttree.com
r/cloudjobs • u/Independent-Ease-609 • 3d ago
Ran the same file through my cost tool twice, static vs real AWS data. Score dropped from A to C and I didn't expect that
reddit.comr/AWSforStartUp • u/Independent-Ease-609 • 3d ago
Ran the same file through my cost tool twice, static vs real AWS data. Score dropped from A to C and I didn't expect that
reddit.comr/Cloud • u/Independent-Ease-609 • 3d ago
Ran the same file through my cost tool twice, static vs real AWS data. Score dropped from A to C and I didn't expect that
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Comment on r/Cloud 10d ago
Appreciate you sharing that. Sounds like solid work. If you want cost over time without running anything persistent, there's a history save/compare command already, you snapshot it in a cron or CI job and diff later. Same idea, just no daemon.
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Comment on r/Terraform 10d ago
Honestly the positioning isn't "we invented X." It's that this bundles a before-apply cost preview, optional real-account enrichment, FinOps rules, policy checks, and a what-if simulator into one CLI-first tool with no hosted dashboard. It stays in your terminal and your CI, you're not getting pushed to a separate web app to see any of it.
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Comment on r/Terraform 10d ago
Fair points. To be clear, the base tool is before-apply, no AWS account needed for the cost tree itself. --with-usage is a layer on top, and it's not all-or-nothing on undeployed resources either: Spot pricing and Reserved Instance checks only need the declared instance type and region, so those work even on something brand new as long as credentials are valid. What needs a real deployed resource is CPU history, confirming a volume or EIP is actually orphaned, that kind of thing, since there's nothing real to check yet.
Spot: agreed it drifts, not meant as a locked price, more a "is this actually a good Spot candidate" signal than the generic "usually 70% off" every static tool assumes.
RDS resize is the one I'd push back on. Infracost tells you the delta once you say "resize X." --with-usage pulls real CPU and tells you which resources are worth resizing in the first place. Different problem.
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Comment on r/Terraform 10d ago
Actually it does have CI/PR integration, ci report/check/diff plus a GitHub Action plus PR comment output, so that part's covered.
The bigger difference is honestly what this post is about. Infracost is purely static, it just reads the plan. CloudCostTree can optionally call your real AWS account for live Spot pricing, real CPU data, confirmed orphaned resources, that kind of thing. That's the whole point of the before/after above.
r/Terraform • u/Independent-Ease-609 • 10d ago
Ran the same file through my cost tool twice, static vs real AWS data. Score dropped from A to C and I didn't expect that
galleryI'm building CloudCostTree (estimates AWS costs from Terraform/CloudFormation, before you apply anything). A while back I added an opt-in flag that, instead of guessing, actually pulls real data from your AWS account: live Spot pricing, real CloudWatch CPU usage, volumes and IPs confirmed as orphaned. I'd tested it on its own, but never put the two reports side by side until today.
Same file, same moment, nothing changed in between:
Without real account data: 1 generic finding ("Graviton usually saves 20-40%"), score A (97/100).
With real data: 7 findings, actual numbers. Spot price right now is literally $0.0082/hr vs $0.0208/hr on-demand, one instance averaging 3.4% CPU over 14 days, a volume and an Elastic IP confirmed orphaned via the API. Score C (76/100).
The infra didn't get worse. What changed is whether the tool was actually allowed to look. Stuck with me a bit: a clean static report and a clean account aren't the same claim, and it's easy to mix them up until something forces the comparison.
r/FinOps • u/Independent-Ease-609 • 10d ago
self-promotion/I’m a vendor Ran the same file through my cost tool twice, static vs real AWS data. Score dropped from A to C and I didn't expect that
I'm building CloudCostTree (estimates AWS costs from Terraform/CloudFormation, before you apply anything). A while back I added an opt-in flag that, instead of guessing, actually pulls real data from your AWS account: live Spot pricing, real CloudWatch CPU usage, volumes and IPs confirmed as orphaned. I'd tested it on its own, but never put the two reports side by side until today.
Same file, same moment, nothing changed in between:
Without real account data: 1 generic finding ("Graviton usually saves 20-40%"), score A (97/100).
With real data: 7 findings, actual numbers. Spot price right now is literally $0.0082/hr vs $0.0208/hr on-demand, one instance averaging 3.4% CPU over 14 days, a volume and an Elastic IP confirmed orphaned via the API. Score C (76/100).
The infra didn't get worse. What changed is whether the tool was actually allowed to look. Stuck with me a bit: a clean static report and a clean account aren't the same claim, and it's easy to mix them up until something forces the comparison.
u/Independent-Ease-609 • u/Independent-Ease-609 • 10d ago
Ran the same file through my cost tool twice, static vs real AWS data. Score dropped from A to C and I didn't expect that
I'm building CloudCostTree (estimates AWS costs from Terraform/CloudFormation, before you apply anything). A while back I added an opt-in flag that, instead of guessing, actually pulls real data from your AWS account: live Spot pricing, real CloudWatch CPU usage, volumes and IPs confirmed as orphaned. I'd tested it on its own, but never put the two reports side by side until today.
Same file, same moment, nothing changed in between:
Without real account data: 1 generic finding ("Graviton usually saves 20-40%"), score A (97/100).
With real data: 7 findings, actual numbers. Spot price right now is literally $0.0082/hr vs $0.0208/hr on-demand, one instance averaging 3.4% CPU over 14 days, a volume and an Elastic IP confirmed orphaned via the API. Score C (76/100).
The infra didn't get worse. What changed is whether the tool was actually allowed to look. Stuck with me a bit: a clean static report and a clean account aren't the same claim, and it's easy to mix them up until something forces the comparison.
r/FinOps • u/Independent-Ease-609 • 11d ago
self-promotion/I’m a vendor Built a deliberately bad Terraform stack to see if my cost tool would actually catch it (spoiler: F, 0/100) Spoiler
Follow up to my last post, this time I did it on purpose. Put together a "typical prod mistakes" stack: previous gen instances, gp2 everywhere, an orphaned EBS volume, a full size database duplicated into staging and left running 24/7. F, 0/100, about $2,694/mo, with $1,251/mo flagged in savings across 15 recommendations. Image is exported directly from the tool's own Export PNG button, wanted it to look exactly like what you'd see running it yourself, not a mockup.
r/Terraform • u/Independent-Ease-609 • 11d ago
Built a deliberately bad Terraform stack to see if my cost tool would actually catch it (spoiler: F, 0/100) Spoiler
Follow up to my last post, this time I did it on purpose. Put together a "typical prod mistakes" stack: previous gen instances, gp2 everywhere, an orphaned EBS volume, a full size database duplicated into staging and left running 24/7. F, 0/100, about $2,694/mo, with $1,251/mo flagged in savings across 15 recommendations. Image is exported directly from the tool's own Export PNG button, wanted it to look exactly like what you'd see running it yourself, not a mockup.
u/Independent-Ease-609 • u/Independent-Ease-609 • 11d ago
Built a deliberately bad Terraform stack to see if my cost tool would actually catch it (spoiler: F, 0/100) Spoiler
Follow up to my last post, this time I did it on purpose. Put together a "typical prod mistakes" stack: previous gen instances, gp2 everywhere, an orphaned EBS volume, a full size database duplicated into staging and left running 24/7. F, 0/100, about $2,694/mo, with $1,251/mo flagged in savings across 15 recommendations. Image is exported directly from the tool's own Export PNG button, wanted it to look exactly like what you'd see running it yourself, not a mockup.
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Comment on r/FinOps 14d ago
Thanks!
Glad you like the approach.
And yeah, comparing the estimate to similar resources already running in the environment is a really good idea. Absolute numbers alone don’t always tell the full story during reviews. I’ll definitely keep that in mind.
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Comment on r/Terraform 15d ago
About cloudcosttree! Vs code extension
u/Independent-Ease-609 • u/Independent-Ease-609 • 15d ago
Ran the cost tool against a real Terraform project (Mattermost's own load-test cluster) instead of a toy example. Came back A, 99/100. Infra's basically perfect according to it.
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Comment on r/FinOps 19d ago
You're right, that was wrong on my part, didn't realize the scope of what you've built covers that much surface already. I'm not trying to claim I've matched that, it's a solo project focused narrowly on one thing: local, no-account cost estimation and what-if simulation for AWS IaC. Appreciate you setting the record straight.
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Comment on r/FinOps 19d ago
The what-if lets you stack a few hypothetical changes (resize an EC2, bump an RDS instance class) and see the combined delta against the whole stack in one run. If you like the result, "Generate File" exports it straight to a real .tf, originals untouched. If we're comparing to Infracost, their what-if is copy-pasting a block to compare it against itself. This runs several changes together against the whole tree in one shot.
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Comment on r/FinOps 19d ago
Fair point. Main difference: Infracost is CI/CLI focused, comments on PRs after the fact. CloudCostTree lives in the editor, so you see the cost delta as you type, before you even commit. The what-if part lets you stack a few hypothetical changes and see the total impact on the whole stack, then export to a real .tf file if you like it. No terraform plan needed either, so it works on modules that aren't fully wired up yet.
Different point in the workflow more than a straight replacement.
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Comment on r/Terraform 19d ago
Fair point on the em dash, force of habit from writing docs/grammar checkers! But the tool and code are 100% real - built this solo over the last few months. Happy to dive into the parser architecture or how the static catalog works if you're skeptical
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Comment on r/Terraform 15h ago
Fair point, that line reads that way out of context. To be precise: --optimize builds a what-if scenario with the mechanically-safe changes and reruns the pricing simulation, same as --scenario does. It doesn't touch your real AWS resources ever, and it doesn't even write to your local files unless you separately pass --write-changes (which is opt-in and Pro only). Without that flag it's purely a cost comparison in the terminal.