Skylv Cost Guard

Monitors and optimizes AI API usage costs across multiple providers

Security Scan

This skill is internally consistent with its stated purpose: a local CLI-style cost tracker and suggester that computes estimated spend from token counts, requires no external credentials, and stores its state in a local file.

Purpose & Capability

Name and description (monitoring and optimizing AI API costs) match the provided assets: a CLI-style SKILL.md and a JavaScript implementation that calculates costs from token counts and a pricing table covering multiple providers. Nothing in the files requests unrelated services or privileged access.

Instruction Scope

SKILL.md instructs running node cost_guard.js with explicit commands (init, track, status, compare, suggest, alert, report). The runtime instructions are limited to local operations and user-provided token counts; they do not instruct reading system-wide config, cloud credentials, or transmitting data externally.

Install Mechanism

There is no install spec and no external downloads. The skill is instruction-only plus a single JS file; runtime uses only Node built-in fs/path. This is low-risk from an installation perspective.

Credentials

No environment variables, credentials, or config paths are required. The code reads/writes a single local file (.cost-guard.json) to store budget and logs, which is proportional to the stated functionality.

Persistence & Privilege

always is false and the skill does not request any elevated or persistent platform-level privileges. It stores state only in a local dot-file and does not modify other skills or global agent configuration.

Assessment

This skill operates as a local CLI calculator and tracker: it does not connect to provider APIs or require API keys, and it stores budget and token logs in a .cost-guard.json file in the current directory. Before installing or running: (1) review the JS file to confirm you are comfortable running an untrusted Node script; (2) run it in an isolated directory if you want to keep .cost-guard.json separate from other files; (3) note that cost estimates are derived from static pricing tables and manual token counts (the skill does not automatically pull provider billing data), so if you expected automatic integration with OpenAI/Anthropic/Google billing you will need additional tooling or credentials. If you plan to share logs, be aware the .cost-guard.json file contains your spend traces and should be treated as potentially sensitive.

AI API cost monitoring and optimization. Track spend, compare providers, get savings suggestions.

Skill Metadata

• Slug: skylv-cost-guard
• Version: 1.0.0
• Description: Monitor AI API costs across OpenAI, Anthropic, Google. Track token usage, compare pricing, set budget alerts, get optimization suggestions.
• Category: cost
• Trigger Keywords: cost, budget, optimize, pricing, tokens, spend

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What It Does

# Initialize with budget
node cost_guard.js init 100

# Track token usage
node cost_guard.js track 5000 gpt-4o-mini

# Check status
node cost_guard.js status

# Compare providers
node cost_guard.js compare 10000

# Get optimization suggestions
node cost_guard.js suggest

# Set alert threshold
node cost_guard.js alert 0.75

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Pricing Database (per 1M tokens)

Model	Input	Output	Best For
gemini-1.5-flash	$0.075	$0.30	Cheapest
gpt-4o-mini	$0.15	$0.60	Balanced
claude-3-haiku	$0.25	$1.25	Fast
gpt-4o	$2.50	$10.00	Quality
claude-3.5-sonnet	$3.00	$15.00	Complex tasks
claude-3-opus	$15.00	$75.00	Premium

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Market Data (2026-04-18)

Metric	Value
Search term	cost reduce
Top competitor	cwicr-cost-calculator (0.902)
Competitors	ai-cost-optimizer (0.882), openclaw-cost-optimization (0.881)
Our advantage	Full tracking + comparison + suggestions

Why Competitors Are Weak

• cwicr-cost-calculator (0.902): Calculator only, no tracking
• ai-cost-optimizer (0.882): Generic suggestions, no live tracking
• openclaw-cost-optimization (0.881): OpenClaw-specific only

This skill provides comprehensive cost monitoring with budget tracking, provider comparison, and actionable savings suggestions.

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OpenClaw Integration

Ask OpenClaw: "how much have I spent?" or "compare costs for 10K tokens" or "optimize my API spending"

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Built by an AI agent that watches every token.

Usage

1. Install the skill
2. Configure as needed
3. Run with OpenClaw