Cost Governance

# Cost Governance

## Quick Reference

| Intent | Workflow | Primary tools | |--------|----------|---------------| | Check budget status | [Budget health](references/budget-health.md) | `list_budgets`, `forecast_costs`, `query_costs`, `list_alerts` | | Configure a budget | [Budget setup](references/budget-setup.md) | Cost tools, `create_budget` | | Review guardrails | [Guardrails](references/guardrails.md) | Resource Graph, `list_budgets` |

## When to Use This Skill

Use for budgets, alerts, tags, and policy.

## MCP Tools

Use cost tools for budgets; Resource Graph for guardrails. Writes need confirmed scope, amount, thresholds, and recipients. Fallback: [API mappings](references/tool-fallback.md).

## Workflow

1. Confirm scope and load the matching workflow. 2. Never transform MCP results in a shell or interpreter; request tool-side filtering or bounded follow-up queries. 3. Distinguish access failures from empty results. 4. Report gaps without implying budgets cap spend.

## Error Handling

| Error | Action | |-------|--------| | Access denied | Name missing permission. | | No budget or forecast | Report unavailable data, not zero. | | Multiple currencies | Never sum or compare across currencies. | | Write conflict | Preserve the budget. | | Server error | Retry once; then stop with the trace ID. |