A developer built an `azure-pricing` skill for GitHub Copilot that uses the Azure MCP tool and Azure Retail Prices API to bring live Azure pricing into architecture and engineering workflows. The skill lets engineers query Azure pricing in plain English directly within Copilot conversations, covering pay-as-you-go, spot, reservation, and savings plan options. It can estimate costs from Terraform/Bicep/ARM templates, compare regions, and handle multi-component services like Blob Storage or Cosmos DB by asking clarifying questions for usage-based pricing. The skill is packaged in `.github/skills/` alongside a COST-FORMULAS.md reference file, making pricing knowledge reusable and consistent across teams rather than locked in individual engineers' heads.
Table of contents
Why this becomes a bigger problem over timeSkills as a way to distribute engineering knowledgeHow the azure-pricing skill worksExample outputs from using the skillThe cost-formulas referenceMore prompts worth tryingFinal thoughtsSort: