Core concepts
The vocabulary OpsLyft uses across every module.
These terms appear across the product. The Glossary has the full list.
Providers and connections
A provider is anything that bills you: a cloud (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Oracle), a data platform (Snowflake, Databricks), Kubernetes, or an AI provider (OpenAI, Anthropic). A connection is the read-only link between OpsLyft and one provider account. Each connection has a freshness state such as live or 71h behind. See Data freshness.
Cost types
Every cost can be shown as Billed, Amortized, or Net. The cost type is chosen per provider, and Cost Explorer shows Mixed when providers use different types.
| Cost type | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Billed | What appears on the invoice for the period. Upfront commitment fees land on the day they're charged. |
| Amortized | Upfront and recurring commitment fees spread over the period they cover. The default for most views. |
| Net | Amortized cost after discounts, credits, and refunds. |
See Cost types.
Dimensions and tags
A dimension is a field you can filter or group by. Common dimensions work across all clouds: Provider, Account ID, Account Name, Billing Account ID, Charge Type, Service, and Invoice Issuer Name. Each provider adds its own dimensions, and every tag key from your resources is also a dimension. OpsLyft shows coverage for each: the share of spend that has a value for it.
Lenses
A lens is a persona-shaped default hierarchy for drilling into cost. The built-in lenses are Finance (Provider → Service → Charge Type), Engineering (Provider → Service → SKU → Resource ID), and CXO (Provider → Region → Service). See Lenses.
Owners and teams
An owner is the person or team responsible for a resource or a finding. OpsLyft reads ownership from your owner tag, account mapping, or Kubernetes namespaces. Spend without an owner is unallocated or unowned, and it's the first thing to fix. See Allocate cost to teams.
Findings
OpsLyft produces three kinds of finding. Each can become a ticket.
| Finding | Module | Measured in |
|---|---|---|
| Opportunity (REC-####) | Optimisation | Savings per month |
| Anomaly (ANM-###) | Anomalies | Excess cost per day |
| Budget breach | Budgets & alerts | Cost over threshold |
Signals
A signal is something wrong with a resource: untagged, orphaned, idle, or stopped. Signals appear in Live inventory and feed Optimisation.
Canvases, chats, and views
- A canvas is a dashboard of widgets. Iris can build one from a description and can read and explain it.
- A chat is a conversation with Iris. Chats that grew a canvas show it alongside.
- A view is a saved Cost Explorer state: filters, grouping, cost type, time range, and chart.
Datasets
A dataset is business data you bring in, such as revenue by customer, org hierarchy, or LLM token usage. Map its account, team, and date columns and it joins to cloud cost. See Datasets.