Trigger.dev Cost Savings Analysis

Analyze task runs and configurations to find cost reduction opportunities. This skill pairs static source analysis with live run analysis via the Trigger.dev MCP server.

Before you start: read the canonical guidance

The authoritative, version-pinned cost guidance ships beside this skill. Read it first so your recommendations match the installed SDK version:

• @trigger.dev/sdk/docs/how-to-reduce-your-spend.mdx — the canonical "reduce your spend" guide (machine sizing, idempotency de-dup, parallelism, retries, maxDuration, checkpointed waits, debounce).
• Supporting references: @trigger.dev/sdk/docs/machines.mdx, runs/max-duration.mdx, queue-concurrency.mdx, idempotency.mdx, triggering.mdx (debounce + batch), errors-retrying.mdx (AbortTaskRunError).

Prerequisites: MCP tools

Live run analysis needs the Trigger.dev MCP server. Verify these tools are available:

• list_runs — list runs with filters (status, task, time period, machine size)
• get_run_details — get run logs, duration, and status
• get_current_worker — get registered tasks and their configurations

If they're not available, tell the user to install the MCP server:

npx trigger.dev@latest install-mcp

Without the MCP tools you can still do the static source analysis below; do not fabricate run data.

Analysis workflow

Step 1: Static analysis (source code)

Scan task files for:

1. 1Oversized machines — tasks on large-1x/large-2x without clear need.
2. 2Missing maxDuration — no execution-time limit (runaway-cost risk).
3. 3Excessive retries — maxAttempts > 5 without AbortTaskRunError for known-permanent failures.
4. 4Missing debounce — high-frequency triggers without debounce.
5. 5Missing idempotency — payment/critical tasks without idempotency keys.
6. 6Polling instead of waits — setTimeout/setInterval/sleep loops instead of wait.for().
7. 7Short waits — wait.for() under 5 seconds (not checkpointed, wastes compute).
8. 8Sequential instead of batch — multiple triggerAndWait() calls that could be batchTriggerAndWait().
9. 9Over-scheduled crons — schedules firing more often than needed.

Step 2: Run analysis (requires MCP tools)

• 2a. Expensive tasks — list_runs over period: "30d"/"7d"; find high total compute (duration × count), high failure rates, and large machines with short durations (over-provisioned).
• 2b. Failure patterns — list_runs with status: "FAILED"/"CRASHED"; separate transient (retryable) from permanent; suggest AbortTaskRunError for the latter; estimate wasted retry compute.
• 2c. Machine utilization — get_run_details on sample runs; if a large-2x task consistently runs in under a second, or is I/O-bound (API/DB), it's over-provisioned.
• 2d. Schedule frequency — get_current_worker to list cron patterns; flag schedules that are too frequent for their purpose.

Step 3: Generate recommendations

Present a prioritized report with estimated impact:

## Cost Optimization Report

### High impact
1. **Right-size `process-images`** — currently `large-2x`, average run 2s. `small-2x` could cut this task's cost by ~16x.
   `machine: { preset: "small-2x" }`  // was "large-2x"

### Medium impact
2. **Debounce `sync-user-data`** — 847 runs/day, often bursty.
   `debounce: { key: \`user-${userId}\`, delay: "5s" }`

### Low impact / best practice
3. **Add `maxDuration` to `generate-report`** — no timeout configured.
   `maxDuration: 300`  // 5 minutes

Machine preset costs (relative)

Larger machines cost proportionally more per second of compute:

Key principles

• Waits > 5 seconds are free — checkpointed, no compute charge.
• Webhook filters skip runs — a webhook delivery starts no run when no subscriber's filter matches, so it costs no compute (a run already waiting for that webhook still resumes). Receiving webhooks has no separate charge.
• Start small, scale up — the default small-1x is right for most tasks.
• I/O-bound tasks don't need big machines — API calls and DB queries wait on the network.
• Debounce saves the most on high-frequency tasks — it consolidates bursts into single runs.
• Idempotency prevents duplicate billed work — especially for expensive operations.
• AbortTaskRunError stops wasteful retries — don't pay to retry permanent failures.

Version

This skill is bundled inside @trigger.dev/sdk and read directly from node_modules, so it always matches your installed SDK version (see the adjacent package.json). The full cost documentation ships alongside it under @trigger.dev/sdk/docs/.