Answer natural language questions and perform analysis on GKE cluster and workload costs using BigQuery billing exports, cost allocation data, and live cluster monitoring metrics.
Install the "gke-cost-analysis" agent skill from https://github.com/google/skills/tree/main/skills/cloud/gke-cost-analysis into .claude/skills/gke-cost-analysis/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "gke-cost-analysis", then confirm the skill loads.
Claude Code copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
Type this inside Codex. $skill-installer <name> installs a curated skill from openai/skills. The installer writes to $CODEX_HOME/skills (default ~/.codex/skills). Restart Codex if the skill does not show up.
skills CLI
$ npx skills add google/skills --skill gke-cost-analysis -a codex
Project install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.codex/skills/.
Install the "gke-cost-analysis" agent skill from https://github.com/google/skills/tree/main/skills/cloud/gke-cost-analysis into .agents/skills/gke-cost-analysis/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "gke-cost-analysis", then confirm the skill loads.
Codex copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
skills CLI
$ npx skills add google/skills --skill gke-cost-analysis -a cursor
Project install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.cursor/skills/.
Install the "gke-cost-analysis" agent skill from https://github.com/google/skills/tree/main/skills/cloud/gke-cost-analysis into .cursor/skills/gke-cost-analysis/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "gke-cost-analysis", then confirm the skill loads.
Cursor copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
--scope user (default) or --scope workspace; --path is the subfolder of the repo that holds the skill; --consent skips the security confirmation prompt.
skills CLI
$ npx skills add google/skills --skill gke-cost-analysis -a gemini-cli
Project install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.gemini/skills/.
Install the "gke-cost-analysis" agent skill from https://github.com/google/skills/tree/main/skills/cloud/gke-cost-analysis into .gemini/skills/gke-cost-analysis/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "gke-cost-analysis", then confirm the skill loads.
Gemini CLI copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
Installs for Copilot at project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Preview a skill first with gh skill preview. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).
skills CLI
$ npx skills add google/skills --skill gke-cost-analysis -a github-copilot
Project install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.copilot/skills/.
Install the "gke-cost-analysis" agent skill from https://github.com/google/skills/tree/main/skills/cloud/gke-cost-analysis into .github/skills/gke-cost-analysis/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "gke-cost-analysis", then confirm the skill loads.
GitHub Copilot copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
skills CLI
$ npx skills add google/skills --skill gke-cost-analysis -a opencode
OpenCode documents no install command of its own. Project install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.config/opencode/skills/.
Install the "gke-cost-analysis" agent skill from https://github.com/google/skills/tree/main/skills/cloud/gke-cost-analysis into .opencode/skills/gke-cost-analysis/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "gke-cost-analysis", then confirm the skill loads.
OpenCode copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
Facts
Skill name
gke-cost-analysis
GitHub stars
21k
Token cost
~1.5k tokens
SKILL.md length
598 words
Files
2 (incl. references)
Skills in repo
147
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
Apache-2.0
At a glance
Answer natural language questions and perform analysis on GKE cluster and workload costs using BigQuery billing exports, cost allocation data, and live cluster monitoring metrics.
Works in 5 steps: Provide a Direct Answer: Address the… → Explain BigQuery Integration: Explain… → Check & Verify Cost Allocation: Explain… → …
Querying GKE costs across projects
SKILL.md covers Overview, Instructions, Key Points & Pricing Drivers and Live Cluster & Cost Monitoring, plus 2 more sections
Calls kubectl, gcloud and bq
What it does
Gke Cost Analysis is an agent skill from google/skills, published by the product's own GitHub organization. Answer natural language questions and perform analysis on GKE cluster and workload costs using BigQuery billing exports, cost allocation data, and live cluster monitoring metrics. Use when querying GKE costs across projects, namespaces, or workloads, analyzing billing reports in BigQuery (bq), checking cluster cost budgets (gcloud billing), or diagnosing cost drivers like pod requests vs. actual utilization (kubectl top). Don't use for applying cost optimization changes, creating rightsizing manifests (VPA/MPA)…
Its SKILL.md is about 1.5k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. The skill folder holds 2 other files, including reference files (for example `references/billing-queries.md`).
It sits in DevOps & Cloud, covering Cloud cost optimization, Data warehousing and Container orchestration. It works with Google Kubernetes Engine, Google BigQuery, Google Cloud and Kubernetes. The repository describes itself as: Agent Skills for Google products and technologies. The licence is Apache-2.0.
When your agent uses it
Querying GKE costs across projects
Analyzing billing reports in BigQuery (bq)
Checking cluster cost budgets (gcloud billing)
Diagnosing cost drivers like pod requests vs
Example prompts
“/gke-cost-analysis”
Workflow steps
5 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.
1Provide a Direct Answer: Address the specific cost question or
2Explain BigQuery Integration: Explain how to query BigQuery for
3Check & Verify Cost Allocation: Explain that GKE Cost Allocation must be
4Analyze Pricing Drivers & Utilization: When diagnosing cost drivers,
5Provide Actionable Commands/Queries: Provide concrete BigQuery CLI (`bq
What it can do on your machine
Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 7d97937. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.
Tool permissions
Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.
From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.
Runs code
Shell commands in SKILL.md call:
kubectl
gcloud
bq
From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.
Network
No URLs in SKILL.md. Its commands use kubectl and gcloud, which can reach the network depending on how they are called.
From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.
Credentials
Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.
From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.
Context cost
Gke Cost Analysis loads about 1.5k tokens when it runs, and up to ~2.4k if it reads all its reference files. Until then it costs about 152 tokens; SKILL.md has 598 words of instructions outside code blocks.
Always· name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~152
When it runs· the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~1.5k
With references· SKILL.md plus every file in references/, read only if the agent opens them
~2.4k
Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.
Safety
Auto-check passed
The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.
Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.
Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/gke-cost-analysis/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder). This skill also uses 1 other file; get the full folder from GitHub.
name
gke-cost-analysis
description
Answer natural language questions and perform analysis on GKE cluster and workload costs using BigQuery billing exports, cost allocation data, and live cluster monitoring metrics. Use when querying GKE costs across projects, namespaces, or workloads, analyzing billing reports in BigQuery (`bq`), checking cluster cost budgets (`gcloud billing`), or diagnosing cost drivers like pod requests vs. actual utilization (`kubectl top`). Don't use for applying cost optimization changes, creating rightsizing manifests (VPA/MPA), or selecting ComputeClasses (use gke-cost-optimization instead).
metadata.version
1.0.0
metadata.category
CloudObservabilityAndMonitoring
GKE Cost Analysis
This skill provides guidance on answering natural language questions about
GKE-related costs, billing reports, and utilization analysis.
Overview
When users ask about GKE costs (e.g., "What are my costs across projects?",
"What's my most expensive namespace?", "Why is my cluster cost spiking?"), use
this skill to provide a structured and expert response using BigQuery billing
exports, cost allocation metadata, and live cluster metrics.
Instructions
When handling a cost-related question:
Provide a Direct Answer: Address the specific cost question or
analytical request clearly and concisely.
Explain BigQuery Integration: Explain how to query BigQuery for
historical cost breakdown. Note that GKE costs originate from the GCP
Billing Detailed BigQuery Export (gcp_billing_export_resource_v1_*).
Check & Verify Cost Allocation: Explain that GKE Cost Allocation must be
enabled on the cluster (--enable-cost-allocation) for namespace, label,
and workload-level billing granularity. If queries return empty labels,
provide the gcloud command to enable it.
Analyze Pricing Drivers & Utilization: When diagnosing cost drivers,
explain whether the cluster is in Autopilot (billed by requested pod
CPU/memory) or Standard mode (billed by underlying VM node size + control
plane fees), and compare live utilization (kubectl top) against
provisioned requests.
Provide Actionable Commands/Queries: Provide concrete BigQuery CLI (bq query) commands or read-only gcloud/kubectl inspection commands. Prefer
bq over BigQuery Studio when available.
Key Points & Pricing Drivers
Data Source: GKE costs come from GCP Billing Detailed BigQuery Export.
The user must provide the full path to their BigQuery table (dataset name
and table name containing the Billing Account ID).
Granularity Requirement: GKE Cost Allocation
(--enable-cost-allocation) must be enabled on the cluster to populate
goog-k8s-cluster-name, k8s-namespace, k8s-workload-name, and
k8s-workload-type labels in BigQuery.
Autopilot vs. Standard Cost Drivers:
Autopilot Pricing: Billed directly on pod resource requests
(requests.cpu, requests.memory, ephemeral storage). Over-requested
pods drive up billing regardless of whether the pod actively uses those
CPU cycles or memory.
Standard Pricing: Billed on provisioned node pool VMs (e2, n4,
c3, etc.). Idle nodes or multiple low-utilization dev clusters drive
excess infrastructure costs.
Cluster Management Fee: ~$0.10/hour per cluster applies to BOTH
Standard and Autopilot modes. The free tier waives it for one eligible
cluster per billing account.
Credits & Discounts Impact: When analyzing cost versus
cost_before_credits, note that Committed Use Discounts (CUDs) and Spot VMs
appear as credits or reduced rate charges in the billing export.
Tools & Syntax: BigQuery CLI (bq) is preferred. When writing Standard
SQL queries, use a dot (.) instead of a colon (:) to separate the
project ID and dataset name ({project_id}.{dataset_name}.{table_name}).
Defaults: Assume last 30 days, row limit 10, ordering by cost descending
(ORDER BY cost DESC), unless specified otherwise.
Show full SKILL.md (168 more words)Show less
Live Cluster & Cost Monitoring
Use read-only CLI commands to inspect current cluster budgets, node utilization,
and pod resource consumption vs. requests:
bash
# View billing budgets for an account (requires Cost Management API)
gcloud billing budgets list --billing-account={billing_account} --quiet
# View live node resource utilization across the cluster
kubectl top nodes
# View pod resource usage across namespaces (compare against requested limits to diagnose waste)
kubectl top pods --all-namespaces --containers
Warning — cluster mutation, not read-only: Enabling GKE cost allocation
modifies the cluster. Get explicit user confirmation before running it, and
note that namespace/workload labels populate in the billing export only from
enablement onward (no historical backfill).
To apply rightsizing changes based on analysis (such as setting up VPA
recommendation mode, adjusting CPU/memory to P95 * 1.2, configuring Spot VMs
via nodeSelector or ComputeClass, enforcing ResourceQuotas, or selecting
machine types and CUDs), use the gke-cost-optimization skill.
BigQuery Query Templates
Ready-to-adapt bq query templates — single workload cost, per-workload
per-cluster breakdown, per-namespace breakdown — with the placeholder policy
and defaults (30 days, LIMIT 10, ORDER BY cost DESC) are in
references/billing-queries.md. All parameters
(dataset, table, project, cluster, etc.) must be replaced with user values.
Note: Checking that the goog-k8s-cluster-name label exists scopes the total
billing data specifically to GKE costs.
Gke Cost Analysis next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.
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Answer natural language questions and perform analysis on GKE cluster and workload costs using BigQuery billing exports, cost allocation data, and live cluster monitoring metrics. Gke Cost Analysis is an agent skill from google/skills, published by the product's own GitHub organization. Answer natural language questions and perform analysis on GKE cluster and workload costs using BigQuery billing exports, cost allocation data, and live cluster monitoring metrics.
When should I use Gke Cost Analysis?
Gke Cost Analysis fits situations like: querying GKE costs across projects; analyzing billing reports in BigQuery (bq); checking cluster cost budgets (gcloud billing); diagnosing cost drivers like pod requests vs.
How do I install Gke Cost Analysis in Claude Code?
Run `npx skills add google/skills --skill gke-cost-analysis -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/cloud/gke-cost-analysis in google/skills) into .claude/skills/gke-cost-analysis in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.
How do I install Gke Cost Analysis in Codex?
Run `npx skills add google/skills --skill gke-cost-analysis -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/cloud/gke-cost-analysis in google/skills) into .agents/skills/gke-cost-analysis in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.
Can I use Gke Cost Analysis in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?
Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add google/skills --skill gke-cost-analysis -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/gke-cost-analysis, .gemini/skills/gke-cost-analysis, .github/skills/gke-cost-analysis and .opencode/skills/gke-cost-analysis in your project.
What does Gke Cost Analysis need to run?
Going by SKILL.md and its folder, Gke Cost Analysis needs the command-line tools its instructions call (kubectl, gcloud and bq).
Does Gke Cost Analysis access the network?
SKILL.md contains no URLs. Any network use would come from the scripts or tools the agent runs. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.
Is Gke Cost Analysis safe to install?
Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.
What licence does Gke Cost Analysis use?
Gke Cost Analysis is published under the Apache-2.0 licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.
How many tokens does Gke Cost Analysis use?
About 1.5k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 6k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full. Its references folder adds about 892 tokens, read only when the agent opens those files.
What are the alternatives to Gke Cost Analysis?
Skills that share tags, products or a category with Gke Cost Analysis: GCP Cloud Architect (alirezarezvani/claude-skills, 28k stars), Devops (nicepkg/auto-company, 192 stars), Kcli Cluster Deployment (karmab/kcli, 653 stars) and GCP Gke (sickn33/agentic-awesome-skills, 47k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.
Who maintains Gke Cost Analysis?
google (a GitHub organization, an official publisher) maintains it in google/skills, which has 21,032 GitHub stars. The repository holds 147 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 8, 2026.
Source: google/skills on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.