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Dd Audit Cost Spike Investigation Agent Skill

Investigate a Datadog product usage or cost spike by correlating Usage Metering data (when/what spiked) with Audit Trail config changes (who changed what in the preceding window).

1k tokens
context cost
the whole folder, loaded on every use
1
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instructions only
0
copies elsewhere
how many repositories repackaged it
147
stars on the repo
on the repository, not the skill itself

Install

one command, takes just this skill from the repository
npx skills add https://github.com/datadog-labs/agent-skills --skill dd-audit-cost-spike-investigation

The instruction itself

11 sections, as written by the author

Audit Trail: Cost / Usage Spike Investigation

Identify what caused a Datadog usage spike by correlating billing data with configuration change history.

The causal chain is: someone changed something → that change increased data volume → usage spiked → cost went up. Usage Metering tells you when and what; Audit Trail tells you who made the change.

Prerequisites

pup auth login   # OAuth2 (recommended) — covers audit queries
# Usage Metering queries also need DD_API_KEY + DD_APP_KEY
export DD_API_KEY=<your-api-key>
export DD_APP_KEY=<your-app-key>
export DD_SITE=datadoghq.com

Scope Boundary

This skill identifies configuration changes that may have caused a spike. It does not identify which specific user or process *submitted* the data (e.g., which service sent the LLM spans). For per-submission attribution, use LLM Observability traces or APM instrumentation.

Investigation Workflow

Step 1 — Identify the spike window and product family

START=$(date -u -v-7d +"%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ" 2>/dev/null || date -u -d "7 days ago" +"%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ")
END=$(date -u +"%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ")

curl -s -G "https://api.${DD_SITE}/api/v2/usage/hourly_usage" \
  -H "DD-API-KEY: ${DD_API_KEY}" \
  -H "DD-APPLICATION-KEY: ${DD_APP_KEY}" \
  --data-urlencode "filter[timestamp][start]=${START}" \
  --data-urlencode "filter[timestamp][end]=${END}" \
  --data-urlencode "filter[product_families]=all" \
  | jq '[.data[] | {
      timestamp: .attributes.timestamp,
      product: .attributes.product_family,
      measurements: [.attributes.measurements[] | {type: .usage_type, value: .value}]
    }]'

Product families with LLM/AI coverage: llm_observability, bits_ai, logs, apm

Step 2 — Pinpoint the spike

From Step 1, identify the hour/day where volume jumped. Note the timestamp as SPIKE_TIME.

Step 3 — Search Audit Trail for config changes in the 24h preceding the spike

pup audit-logs search \
  --query "@action:(created OR modified OR deleted)" \
  --from "SPIKE_TIME_MINUS_24H" \
  --to "SPIKE_TIME" \
  --limit 200 \
  -o json \
  | jq '[.data[] | {
      timestamp: .attributes.timestamp,
      user: .attributes.attributes.usr.email,
      actor_type: .attributes.attributes.evt.actor.type,
      action: .attributes.attributes.action,
      event_category: .attributes.attributes.evt.name,
      resource_type: .attributes.attributes.asset.type,
      resource_id: .attributes.attributes.asset.id
    }]'

> Note: --from and --to accept ISO timestamps (e.g., 2026-05-01T14:00:00Z) or relative values (1h, 24h, 7d).

Step 4 — Narrow to product-relevant config changes

Filter to the audit categories most likely to affect the spiking product:

| If this product spiked | Add to query |

|------------------------|-------------|

| llm_observability | @evt.name:(Integration OR APM OR "Log Management") |

| logs / indexed_logs | @evt.name:"Log Management" @asset.type:(pipeline OR index OR exclusion_filter) |

| apm / indexed_spans | @evt.name:APM @asset.type:(retention_filter OR sampling_rate) |

| rum | @evt.name:RUM |

| metrics | @evt.name:Metrics |

Example for LLM Observability spike:

pup audit-logs search \
  --query "@evt.name:(Integration OR APM OR \"Log Management\") @action:(created OR modified)" \
  --from "SPIKE_TIME_MINUS_24H" \
  --to "SPIKE_TIME" \
  --limit 100 \
  -o json \
  | jq '[.data[] | {
      timestamp: .attributes.timestamp,
      user: .attributes.attributes.usr.email,
      action: .attributes.attributes.action,
      category: .attributes.attributes.evt.name,
      resource_type: .attributes.attributes.asset.type,
      resource_id: .attributes.attributes.asset.id
    }]'

Output Format

Usage spike detected:
  Product: <product_family>
  Spike time: <SPIKE_TIME>
  Volume: <baseline> → <spike_value> (<magnitude>×)

Configuration changes in 24h preceding spike:
  <timestamp> | <user_email> | <action> <resource_type> <resource_id> | <category>

Likely causal change: <most-proximate change matching the product family>

Confidence: HIGH (single clear change) / MEDIUM (multiple candidates) / LOW (no matching changes)

Next steps:
  - Confirm with <user_email> whether the change was intentional
  - If unintentional: revert <resource_id> and monitor volume
  - If intentional: update cost forecasts and alert thresholds

When No Causal Change Is Found

  • The change may predate the 24h window — expand to 72h
  • The increase may be from application-side instrumentation changes — check deploys
  • The increase may be organic traffic growth — correlate with product launch or traffic event

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How to use it

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Take datadog-labs/dd-audit-cost-spike-investigation from the repository into ~/.claude/skills for personal use, or into .claude/skills inside a project.

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