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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. It lives in the dashboard next to your full web report (the in-depth scan experience with trends, drill-downs, and management-style summaries). The weekly digest email is a short summary with highlights and links—it does not include the full report body or Navi. Ask questions in the app and receive answers grounded in your scans and report context where applicable.

Key Capabilities

Feature Description
Natural Language Queries Ask questions in plain English about your AWS costs
Web report + scan grounding Answers use findings, rollups, and in-app report signals (e.g. scores, executive-style summaries), not random web search
Threaded chats Multiple conversations via a thread list (current dashboard UI)
Navi memory Optional long-lived context you enable and confirm in Settings (see Accessing Navi below)
Streaming responses Replies stream in as the model generates them in the live UI
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
Saved history Threads and messages persist for continuity across sessions

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 (latest Navi UI uses a thread list on the left; each chat has its own thread).
  2. Open Navi from the navigation menu (marked with an AI badge). The full web report for a scan lives under Reports / scan views in the same app—open it when you want depth alongside Navi.
  3. Start a new thread or pick an existing one. Deep links use ?thread=<id> on the Navi URL when you copy or bookmark a conversation.
  4. Optional Navi memory: in Settings, scroll to the Navi memory card (confirm before content is saved to memory). Same area hosts Navi Custom Instructions on Enterprise.

If your deployment documents NEXT_PUBLIC_NAVI_V2, that flag only toggles the v2 layout; behavior (threads, memory, grounding) is the same product surface.

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 suggestions vs. categories

In the current UI, chat threads are the primary navigation. When you start an empty thread, you may see suggested prompts (similar ideas to the list below). Older docs referred to a fixed “prompt categories” sidebar; treat those as examples of what to ask, not the only way to move around the product.

  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

Saved threads and message history (plus optional Navi memory when enabled) carry context forward—this is not a single ephemeral browser session. After initial analysis, drill deeper in the same thread:

  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 findings, rollups, and in-app web report context (fields surfaced in the dashboard report such as executive-style summaries, scores, and top-line metrics) with deep domain expertise—not “session-only” guessing. Inputs are assembled server-side for each turn; the digest email is not the source of the full report.

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
  • Web report signals - Where available, structured report sections and summaries from the dashboard inform answers
  • 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.

Privacy & Security

Data Handling

  • Scan and cost metadata are processed to generate answers; see Security for what we persist at the org level.
  • Navi threads and messages are stored in unusd.cloud so you can resume conversations, search history, and use optional memory—this is intentional product behavior, not a transient-only chat.
  • Content you send to third-party model providers is processed only to produce responses; we do not use your prompts or scan content to train foundation models. Provider-side retention is governed by those vendors’ policies; our Security page summarizes how we treat data in transit and at rest.
  • API calls are encrypted in transit (TLS).

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: What is the difference between the digest email and the full report / Navi?

A: The weekly digest is a short email summary (top waste, highlights, links). The full web report—trends, drill-downs, management-style rollups—lives in the dashboard, alongside Navi. Open the app from the digest when you need depth or a threaded conversation.

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: Prompts and retrieved context are sent to third-party AI APIs only to generate responses. We do not use your data to train foundation models. Conversations are stored in unusd.cloud for continuity (threads/history); provider-side handling and retention follow each vendor’s terms. See our Security page for how we protect data in transit and at rest.

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!

Keep on chasing 🧡