# AWS cost spike investigation with Clanker Cloud

Use Clanker Cloud when an AWS bill jumps and the team needs resource-level cause, not just a service total.

## Buyer query

Can Clanker Cloud explain which AWS resources, tags, regions, or deploys caused a cost spike before we optimize anything?

## App workflow

Open Cost Explorer, choose the AWS profile and date window, then ask:

```text
Explain the AWS spend spike since Monday. Tie it to services, resource identifiers, tags, regions, and recent deploy or scaling signals.
```

## Required context

- AWS profile, spike window, expected baseline, known deploy window, and required tags.

## Example output

```text
Finding: spend increased by about $247/month equivalent. The largest movement is NAT Gateway data processing in us-east-1 after checkout-api moved image pulls through private subnets. Second contributor is an idle db.r6g.large read replica tagged Environment=staging but attached to no active app. Suggested next step: inspect egress path and generate a reviewed plan for VPC endpoint coverage or image pull routing before deleting anything.
```

## Safety boundary

The app reads cost and resource metadata first. It does not resize, delete, or purchase commitments. Any optimization that changes infrastructure should be generated as a plan and explicitly approved.

## Related

- Full example: https://clankercloud.ai/examples/find-aws-cost-spike
- Local credentials: https://clankercloud.ai/security/local-credentials