I’m a Cloud Architect, and I built aws-doctor because I found myself constantly running the same manual checks across different AWS accounts to find "zombie" resources. While AWS Trusted Advisor exists, the best checks are often locked behind paid Business/Enterprise support plans, and the AWS Console can be slow when you just want a quick "health check."
What it does: It’s a TUI (Terminal User Interface) that acts as a proactive checkup for your account.
Waste Detection: Scans for stopped instances (>30 days), unattached EBS volumes, unassociated Elastic IPs, and expiring Reserved Instances.
Cost Diagnosis: Compares your current month-to-date costs against the exact same period last month (e.g., Jan 1–15 vs. Feb 1–15) to spot spending velocity issues.
Trends: Visualizes cost history over the last 6 months.
The Tech Stack:
Written in Go (1.24).
Uses AWS SDK v2.
UI built with Charm's Bubbletea and Lipgloss (for the tables/styling).
It’s completely open-source and runs locally on your machine (using your standard ~/.aws/credentials).
I’d love to hear your feedback on the code structure or suggestions for other "waste patterns" I should add to the detection logic.
One day, as you spend vast resources tracking and cutting and worrying about your AWS expenses, you’ll think “hey I could cut 100% of AWS costs by not using it!”.
Thinking about cutting AWS costs is your first step on the journey to never using it.
That’s great, until realise that you’re now spending money on infrastructure elsewhere instead.
I’m not going to pretend AWS is cost effective for every type of problem. But the comments here are overly simplistic.
Also, and more generally, I find it disappointing that when someone has made an open source tool to help the community, most of the comments are cheap attacks at the cost of running AWS. Poor etiquette guys.
Hi HN,
I’m a Cloud Architect, and I built aws-doctor because I found myself constantly running the same manual checks across different AWS accounts to find "zombie" resources. While AWS Trusted Advisor exists, the best checks are often locked behind paid Business/Enterprise support plans, and the AWS Console can be slow when you just want a quick "health check."
What it does: It’s a TUI (Terminal User Interface) that acts as a proactive checkup for your account.
Waste Detection: Scans for stopped instances (>30 days), unattached EBS volumes, unassociated Elastic IPs, and expiring Reserved Instances.
Cost Diagnosis: Compares your current month-to-date costs against the exact same period last month (e.g., Jan 1–15 vs. Feb 1–15) to spot spending velocity issues.
Trends: Visualizes cost history over the last 6 months.
The Tech Stack:
Written in Go (1.24).
Uses AWS SDK v2.
UI built with Charm's Bubbletea and Lipgloss (for the tables/styling).
It’s completely open-source and runs locally on your machine (using your standard ~/.aws/credentials).
I’d love to hear your feedback on the code structure or suggestions for other "waste patterns" I should add to the detection logic.
Thanks!
My AWS cost optimiser is to use a hosting provider instead of AWS.
Using AWS may not be your decision. If you're stuck using it by company policy, OP's tool could make you a workplace hero.
Cool. Enjoy!
Sorry, I didn't understand the comment
Using Hetzner or IVH will cut your infra bill by 4x or 5x
2 replies →
Yup.
One day, as you spend vast resources tracking and cutting and worrying about your AWS expenses, you’ll think “hey I could cut 100% of AWS costs by not using it!”.
Thinking about cutting AWS costs is your first step on the journey to never using it.
That’s great, until realise that you’re now spending money on infrastructure elsewhere instead.
I’m not going to pretend AWS is cost effective for every type of problem. But the comments here are overly simplistic.
Also, and more generally, I find it disappointing that when someone has made an open source tool to help the community, most of the comments are cheap attacks at the cost of running AWS. Poor etiquette guys.
Will try this one soon, ty!
Thanks!!! If you find something that can be improved, don't doubt opening an issue!
I was thinking of building something like this just a couple of days ago. Looks awesome! Will definitely try it out
Thanks, if you think about something that might be improved, please open an issue!!!