CloudZero CostFormation Toolkit

CloudZero CostFormation transforms the way you think about Cloud Costs. You declare Business Relevant Dimensions based on your cost data, even in the absence of good tagging. This CloudZero CostFormation Toolkit enables you to quickly author and publish your CostFormation.

Walkthrough

Features

The CloudZero CostFormation Toolkit provides:

• Full Structural and Semantic Linting of CloudZero CostFormation YAML Syntax
• Snippets for quickly inserting constructs from the CloudZero CostFormation language
• Inline Source Completion: IntelliSense populates with real Dimension source values like K8s Labels and AWS Tags
• Full CloudZero CostFormation Validation: Server validation of all CloudZero CostFormation language constructs and source usage
• Publish CloudZero CostFormation: Publish CloudZero CostFormation definition version for use in rest of CloudZero platform
• Detect and resolve conflicts: Confirms that published CostFormation is based on the latest server version and drops into merge editor if it detects drift

CloudZero Sidebar

After authenticating, the CloudZero icon appears in the Activity Bar with two views:

• Organization: Shows your current organization name and ID. Click to switch organizations if you have access to multiple.
• Namespaces: Lists all your User:* namespaces and their definition files. Right-click items to access actions.

Understanding Namespaces

Namespaces organize your CostFormation definitions:

• User:Defined is the default namespace for global definitions (previously the only option)
• Create custom namespaces (e.g., User:TeamA, User:ProjectX) to organize definitions by team, project, or any other grouping

Getting Started

Using the Sidebar

1. Run CloudZero: Authenticate from the Command Palette to sign in
2. Click the CloudZero icon in the Activity Bar to open the sidebar
3. In the Organization view, verify you're in the correct organization
4. In the Namespaces view, expand a namespace to see its definition file
5. Right-click the definition file for actions:
   • Download CostFormation - download to edit locally
   • Restore Older CostFormation - revert to a previous version
6. Edit the downloaded .cz.yaml file with snippet and validation support
7. Save to trigger full semantic validation
8. Run CloudZero: Publish CostFormation from the Command Palette to publish changes

Using the Command Palette

1. CloudZero: Authenticate - opens browser window for authentication
2. CloudZero: Download CostFormation - select a namespace and download the latest version
3. Edit the .cz.yaml file with snippet and validation support
4. Save to trigger full semantic validation including Source and Streams validation
5. CloudZero: Publish CostFormation - publish changes (detects conflicts and opens diff editor if needed)
6. CloudZero: Restore Older CostFormation - restore an older version to revert updates

Namespace Management

Manage namespaces from the Command Palette or sidebar context menus:

• CloudZero Namespaces: New Namespace - Create a new User:* namespace
• CloudZero Namespaces: View Namespace - View namespace details
• CloudZero Namespaces: Browse All - List all namespaces
• CloudZero Namespaces: Remove Namespace - Delete a namespace (User:Defined cannot be deleted)

Organization Switching

If you have access to multiple CloudZero organizations:

• Click the organization in the sidebar, or
• Run CloudZero: Switch Organization from the Command Palette

Documentation

• Using CloudZero CostFormation VSCode Extension: https://docs.cloudzero.com/docs/vscode-costformation-extension
• CloudZero CostFormation Reference: https://docs.cloudzero.com/docs/cost-format-definition-language