Use when the user wants to capture AI tool costs, review spending trends, set cost budgets, or integrate cost data into health snapshots — guides quarterly cost capture, records data in a structured format, and updates MODEL_ROUTING.md with observed cost patterns
Capture, record, and track AI tool costs over time. Cost data feeds into health snapshots and informs model routing decisions.
This skill does not access billing APIs directly — it guides the user through checking their provider dashboards and recording the data in a structured format that the plugin can read.
Without cost data:
With cost data:
Cost data is captured in observability/costs/YYYY-MM-DD-costs.md.
Each file records one capture session (typically quarterly).
# Cost Snapshot — YYYY-MM-DD
## Provider Spend
| Provider | Period | Spend | Tokens (input) | Tokens (output) |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Anthropic | YYYY-MM to YYYY-MM | $X,XXX | XXM | XXM |
| OpenAI | YYYY-MM to YYYY-MM | $X,XXX | XXM | XXM |
## Model Breakdown (if available)
| Model | Tokens (input) | Tokens (output) | Estimated cost |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| claude-sonnet-4 | XXM | XXM | $XXX |
| claude-opus-4 | XXM | XXM | $XXX |
| claude-haiku-4 | XXM | XXM | $XXX |
## Per-Project Estimate
| Project/Repo | Estimated share | Rationale |
| --- | --- | --- |
| ai-literacy-superpowers | XX% | Primary development repo |
| ai-literacy-exemplar | XX% | Secondary, used for testing |
## Observations
- [Any patterns noticed — cost spikes, model tier shifts, etc.]
## Budget Status
- Monthly budget: $X,XXX (or "not set")
- Current monthly average: $X,XXX
- Trend: increasing / stable / decreasing
- Action needed: yes / no
Guide the user to their billing pages:
Anthropic:
Check your usage at: https://console.anthropic.com/settings/billing
Look for: monthly spend, token usage by model, usage over time
OpenAI:
Check your usage at: https://platform.openai.com/usage
Look for: monthly spend, model breakdown, daily usage chart
Other providers: Ask the user where to find their billing data.
Create observability/costs/YYYY-MM-DD-costs.md using the format
above. Ask the user for each field:
If a previous cost snapshot exists in observability/costs/, read it
and compute:
If the cost data reveals patterns that should change routing:
Update the Sovereignty Considerations section with observed data.
The next /harness-health run will read the latest cost snapshot
and populate the Cost Indicators section. The skill does not update
the snapshot directly — it produces the cost data file that the
snapshot reads.
mkdir -p observability/costs
git add observability/costs/YYYY-MM-DD-costs.md MODEL_ROUTING.md
git commit -m "Cost snapshot: YYYY-MM-DD ($X,XXX monthly average)"
Quarterly, aligned with the assessment cadence. The recommended