Azure Skills Plugin is an agent plugin that packages Azure-specific guidance with MCP server configurations for carrying out Azure work. Coding agents use it to plan, deploy, troubleshoot, monitor, govern, and optimize Azure applications and services. The catalogue entries are the plugin's skills, instructions, and execution integrations.
Getting it into your agent
One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.
npx skills add microsoft/azure-skills --skill cost-optimizationgit clone --depth 1 https://github.com/microsoft/azure-skillsWrote this? Show the measurements
A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.
[](https://agentmods.dev/skills/microsoft/azure-skills/cost-optimization)<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/microsoft/azure-skills/cost-optimization"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/microsoft/azure-skills/cost-optimization/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/microsoft/azure-skills/cost-optimization"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/microsoft/azure-skills/cost-optimization.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>What it costs to keep this loaded
Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.
| Model | Per session | Once invoked |
|---|---|---|
| Fable 5.1 | $0.00098 | $0.00414 |
| Opus 5.5 | $0.00039 | $0.00166 |
| Sonnet 5.5 | $0.00020 | $0.00083 |
| Haiku 4.5 | $0.00010 | $0.00041 |
Grade A, and why
cost-optimization scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 14d ago.
A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.
Nothing flagged
None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.
This is a copy
100% identical to cost-optimization — 0 lines differ, which has more behind it and is treated as the original. This page carries a canonical link to it rather than competing with it.
What it actually says
Azure Cost Optimization
Quick Reference
| Intent | Workflow | Primary tools |
|---|---|---|
| Reduce waste or rightsize | Optimization | Cost and Resource Graph tools |
| Review commitments | Commitments | list_benefit_utilization, list_reservation_transactions, get_benefit_recommendations |
When to Use This Skill
Use for waste, rightsizing, and commitments.
MCP Tools
Use cost and Resource Graph tools for optimization and benefit tools for commitments. Validate queries. Fallback: API mappings.
Workflow
- Confirm scope, period, currency, and commitment intent.
- Load only the matching workflow above.
- Never transform MCP results in a shell or interpreter; request validated server-side projection, aggregation, or bounded follow-up queries.
- Separate measured cost, reported savings, and qualitative opportunities.
- Recommend changes only; do not delete, resize, purchase, or deploy resources.
Error Handling
| Error | Action |
|---|---|
| Access denied | Name the scope and permission. |
| Multiple currencies | Group and report each currency separately. |
| Missing evidence | State the gap; do not invent values. |
| Server error | Retry once; then report the trace ID. |
What ships with it
8 files beside SKILL.md in the same directory: the scripts, references and assets a skill reads on demand. Not counted in the per-session cost; read them before you install if any of them is executable.
What this file has done since we first saw it
Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.
- 14d ago Changed daa95985eb65
- 1mo ago First seen · 45 lines · 98 tokens per session scan A e9cf29cb3c46
cost-optimization is a skill published in the GitHub repository microsoft/azure-skills (1,636 stars, last pushed today), licensed MIT. It adds 98 tokens to every session and 414 once invoked, about $0.0004 per session on Opus 5.5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. It is 100% identical to cost-optimization, differing in 0 lines, and is treated as a copy.
cost-optimization compared with skills from other repositories
| Mod | Type | Stars | Last push | Licence | Scan | Tokens | Works with |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| cost-optimizationmicrosoft/azure-skills | Skill | 1.6k | today | MIT | A | 98 | Claude Code |
| aws-cost-cleanupsickn33/agentic-awesome-skills | Skill | 50k | yesterday | MIT | A | 15 | Claude Code |
| aws-cost-operationssickn33/agentic-awesome-skills | Skill | 50k | yesterday | MIT | A | 44 | Claude Code |
| azure-computemicrosoft/skills | Skill | 3.2k | today | MIT | A | 154 | Claude Code |
| azure-costmicrosoft/skills | Skill | 3.2k | today | MIT | A | 94 | Claude Code |
| cost-estimationmicrosoft/skills | Skill | 3.2k | today | MIT | A | 97 | Claude Code |
| cost-governancemicrosoft/skills | Skill | 3.2k | today | MIT | A | 99 | Claude Code |