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Navi

Hey! Listen! Your AI-powered fairy companion for AWS cost optimization.

Navi is an intelligent conversational interface inspired by the beloved fairy from The Legend of Zelda. She helps you understand and optimize your AWS spending through natural conversation, providing actionable recommendations based on AWS Well-Architected best practices, FinOps principles, and cloud governance guidelines.

Overview

Navi transforms complex AWS cost data into clear, actionable insights through natural conversation. Simply ask questions about your infrastructure, and receive expert recommendations backed by real-time scan data.

Key Capabilities

Feature Description
Natural Language Queries Ask questions in plain English about your AWS costs
Real-time Analysis Recommendations based on your latest scan data
FinOps Best Practices Guidance aligned with FinOps Foundation principles
AWS Well-Architected Recommendations follow AWS Cost Optimization Pillar
Multi-Account Support Analyze costs across all connected AWS accounts
Custom Instructions Persistent org context for tailored responses
Conversation Context Maintains context for follow-up questions

Getting Started

Prerequisites

Before using Navi, ensure you have:

  1. At least one AWS account connected to unusd.cloud
  2. A completed scan with resource findings
  3. An active subscription (Business or Enterprise plan)

Accessing Navi

  1. Log in to your unusd.cloud dashboard
  2. Click Navi in the navigation menu (marked with "AI" badge)
  3. Start asking questions or use the suggested prompts

How to Use Navi

Asking Questions

Navi understands natural language questions about your AWS infrastructure. Here are some effective ways to interact:

Cost Analysis Questions

"What was my EC2 cost last month?"
"Which are my most expensive resources?"
"Show me unused resources and their costs"

Optimization Requests

"What are my top 5 cost-saving opportunities?"
"How can I reduce my EBS costs?"
"Suggest Reserved Instances for my workload"

Best Practice Guidance

"How should I tag resources for cost allocation?"
"What's the best strategy for multi-region cost optimization?"
"How can I implement better cloud governance?"

Using Quick Actions

The interface provides quick action buttons for common queries:

  • Monthly Summary - Overview of current month's spending
  • Waste Report - List of all unused resources
  • Optimization Score - Assessment of your cost efficiency
  • Cost Trends - Historical analysis and predictions

Prompt Categories

The sidebar organizes prompts into four categories:

  1. Cost Optimization - Direct cost reduction opportunities
  2. Resource Analysis - Deep dives into specific services
  3. FinOps Best Practices - Industry-standard optimization strategies
  4. Compliance & Governance - Security and policy-related queries

Custom Instructions

Custom Instructions let you provide persistent context about your organization that is used across the entire product — Navi conversations, per-account scan report recommendations, and management reports. Set it once, and every AI-generated recommendation is automatically tailored to your environment.

Setting Up Custom Instructions

  1. Go to Settings in the dashboard sidebar
  2. Scroll to the Navi Custom Instructions card (Enterprise plan)
  3. Enter your context in the text area (up to 2,000 characters)
  4. Click Save Settings

Once saved, your instructions are automatically included in every Navi conversation, in the AI-powered recommendations within each scan report, and in management report summaries and actions — for all team members in your organization.

What to Include

Good custom instructions give Navi context it wouldn't otherwise have. Consider including:

Category Examples
Account structure "We use a multi-account strategy with separate prod, staging, and dev accounts"
Key regions "Our main workloads run in eu-west-1 and us-east-1"
Tagging conventions "We tag all resources with Environment, Project, and CostCenter"
Optimization priorities "Focus on rightsizing EC2 and cleaning up unused EBS volumes"
Business context "We're a SaaS company with peak traffic on weekdays 9am-6pm CET"
Constraints "We cannot use Reserved Instances due to variable workloads"

Example

- We operate a multi-account AWS Organization with 12 accounts (3 prod, 3 staging, 6 dev)
- Primary regions: eu-west-1 (production) and us-east-1 (DR and global services)
- Tagging convention: Environment, Project, CostCenter, Owner
- All production workloads must maintain Reserved Instances or Savings Plans coverage
- Dev/staging environments should be shut down outside business hours (CET)
- We use EKS for containerized workloads and have a mix of EC2 and Fargate

With these instructions set, every AI-generated output across the product — Navi answers, scan report recommendations, and management report insights — will reference your account structure, prioritize your regions, and align with your team's conventions.

Understanding Responses

Navi provides structured responses with:

1. Summary

A brief overview of key findings, often starting with "Hey! Listen!" for important discoveries.

2. Analysis

Detailed breakdown including:

  • Affected resources with IDs
  • Current costs and potential savings (referred to as "treasure")
  • Percentage improvements possible

3. Recommendations

Prioritized action items with:

  • What to do
  • Why it matters (cost impact)
  • How to implement
  • Risk level (low/medium/high)

4. AWS Best Practice References

Navi cites AWS documentation and FinOps principles using blockquotes like this, providing authoritative backing for recommendations.

5. Data Tables

When comparing resources, Navi presents data in clear tables:

Resource Current Cost Potential Savings Priority
i-abc123 $150/mo $75/mo (50%) High
i-def456 $80/mo $30/mo (37%) Medium

Best Practices for Using Navi

Be Specific

Instead of: "How can I save money?"

Try: "How can I reduce costs on my development environment EC2 instances in eu-west-1?"

Ask Follow-up Questions

Navi maintains conversation context. After initial analysis, drill deeper:

  1. "What are my unused resources?"
  2. "Tell me more about the idle EC2 instances"
  3. "How do I safely terminate them?"

Combine Queries

For comprehensive analysis:

  • Start with overview: "Give me a monthly summary"
  • Then focus: "Analyze my RDS spending in detail"
  • Then act: "What's the safest way to implement rightsizing?"

Validate Before Acting

Navi provides recommendations, but always:

  1. Review the specific resources identified
  2. Check for dependencies or business requirements
  3. Test changes in non-production first
  4. Follow your organization's change management process

How Navi Works

Navi is powered by advanced AI models optimized for AWS cost analysis. It combines your scan history with deep domain expertise to deliver personalized, actionable recommendations.

What Powers Navi

  • Purpose-built AI - Fine-tuned for AWS cost optimization and FinOps best practices
  • Your scan data - Recommendations are based on your actual resource findings and spending patterns
  • Historical context - Navi considers trends over time, not just the latest snapshot
  • Domain expertise - Built-in knowledge from the AWS Well-Architected Framework, FinOps Foundation principles, and AWS service-specific optimization guides

As you run more scans, Navi's recommendations become increasingly accurate and tailored to your environment.

Navi brings a touch of gaming nostalgia to cloud cost management:

  • 🧚 Helpful companion - Always eager to guide you through your cloud journey
  • 💎 Treasure hunter - Refers to cost savings as "treasure" and hidden opportunities
  • ✨ Encouraging - Celebrates your optimization wins
  • 🎯 Focused - Stays on task while keeping things fun

Privacy & Security

Data Handling

  • Scan data is processed in real-time
  • No data is stored beyond the session
  • Conversations are not logged or retained
  • API calls are encrypted in transit

Limitations

Navi:

  • Provides recommendations, not automatic actions
  • Cannot modify your AWS resources
  • Relies on scan data accuracy
  • Should be used as guidance, not absolute authority

Troubleshooting

"No recent scans found"

Run a scan first to populate data for analysis. Navi needs scan results to provide personalized recommendations.

Slow responses

Complex queries with large datasets may take longer. Navi is analyzing all your findings to provide comprehensive answers.

Generic responses

If responses seem too general:

  1. Set up Custom Instructions with your environment context
  2. Be more specific in your question
  3. Filter to specific accounts or regions
  4. Reference specific services or resource types

FAQ

Q: Which subscription plans include Navi?

A: Navi is available on Business and Enterprise plans.

Q: How current is the data Navi uses?

A: Navi uses your most recent scan data. Run scans regularly for up-to-date recommendations.

Q: Can Navi make changes to my AWS account?

A: No. Navi is read-only and provides recommendations. You implement changes through the AWS console or CLI.

Q: Is my data shared with third-party AI providers?

A: Data is processed through third-party AI APIs strictly for generating recommendations. Your data is not used for model training and is not retained by the AI provider. See our Security page for details.

Q: What are Custom Instructions and how do they work?

A: Custom Instructions let you provide persistent context about your AWS environment (account structure, regions, tagging conventions, priorities) that is automatically included across the entire product — Navi conversations, per-account scan report recommendations, and management reports. Set them once in Settings > Navi Custom Instructions, and all team members benefit from tailored AI output everywhere. This feature is available on the Enterprise plan.

Q: Why is it called Navi?

A: Navi is inspired by the helpful fairy companion from The Legend of Zelda series, known for guiding players through their adventures with helpful hints. Just like the original Navi, our Navi guides you through your AWS cost optimization journey!