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MaxOps Documentation · The illustrated manual

EVERY GUIDE,
DRAWN.

MaxOps documentation is a comic series. Each guide is an issue — the same screens, fields, and rules you'd find in a manual, except you can see them. Read one end to end, or use the question index below to land on the exact page that answers you.

7 issues published 0 in production 100 pages drawn

THE RACK

Every issue is published and complete — no stubs, no "TODO" sections.

Issue №1 Available now The Cost Sentinel mascot waves hello in front of a starry skyline of server towers.
Arc · Getting Started
THE ONBOARDING RUN

The three-step setup wizard, in full. Every field, button, and dropdown — what the AWS profile picker really selects, what Create Role does to your account, why Continue is greyed out, and what each error message is actually telling you.

22 pages · ~12 min · Onboarding & IAM Read ▸
Issue №2 Available now The Cost Sentinel holds a giant golden caliper against a huge glowing server box containing one tiny workload.
Arc · Optimization
THE RIGHTSIZER

How MaxOps decides an instance is too big — why it measures your peak rather than your average, the three levels of headroom you can choose, and every reason it refuses to recommend a change.

19 pages · ~11 min · EC2 rightsizing Read ▸
Issue №3 Available now The Cost Sentinel beside a towering glowing card catalogue with check cards floating around it.
Arc · Optimization
THE CHECKS

The 103 questions MaxOps asks of your account — how to read a finding, why some have no button, how to quiet the ones that don't apply, and how to be certain nothing changes without your say-so.

13 pages · ~8 min · Checks & snoozes Read ▸
Issue №4 Available now The Cost Sentinel at a curved control console covered in glowing dials and sliders.
Arc · Optimization
THE DIALS

Tuning without losing trust — what the defaults are for, the three presets and how they move every threshold at once, when to override a single check, and the one setting that erases your history.

12 pages · ~8 min · Settings & tuning Read ▸
Issue №5 Available now The Cost Sentinel beside a glowing bridge of light arcing from a server tower to a floating chat window.
Arc · Integrations
THE AUTOMATION LAYER

Ask a desktop AI assistant about your own cloud — what it can reach, why thirteen of the sixteen tools only read, where your data actually goes, and the switch in front of anything that writes.

12 pages · ~8 min · MCP & assistants Read ▸
Issue №6 Available now The Cost Sentinel pressing a glowing price chip onto a row of a floating browser table.
Arc · Integrations
THE CONSOLE OVERLAY

Cost and finding chips inside AWS Console tables — installing it, why it can only ever reach your own machine, and exactly which five resource types it covers today.

10 pages · ~7 min · Browser extension Read ▸
Issue №7 Available now The Cost Sentinel holding a glowing invoice whose figures resolve from pale estimates into solid gold numbers.
Arc · Accuracy
THE REAL BILL

Why list prices overstate what you pay, what amortized cost means when you hold reservations, and the four steps that price findings from your actual bill.

12 pages · ~9 min · Cost data & billing Read ▸

LOOK IT UP

Have a specific question? These land you on the exact page, not the top of an issue.

What do the three steps at the top mean?№1 · Page 2 Do I have to extract the pricing database?№1 · Page 4 How do I extract the pricing database?№1 · Page 5 There's no Extract button — what now?№1 · Page 5 What happens when I click Get Started?№1 · Page 6 What permissions does MaxOps ask for?№1 · Page 7 What is the AWS profile dropdown for?№1 · Page 8 Why does a profile say “account unavailable”?№1 · Page 8 Which account gets scanned — and who is trusted?№1 · Page 9 What does Create Role actually do to my account?№1 · Page 10 Why does the button pause at the end?№1 · Page 10 What is the Download JSON button good for?№1 · Page 11 My credentials can't create IAM roles. Now what?№1 · Page 12 “Could not assume role with profile” — why?№1 · Page 12 What do the fields on the Role ready card mean?№1 · Page 13 Why did the profile dropdown change by itself?№1 · Page 14 Does the environment name filter what gets scanned?№1 · Page 15 How many regions should I select?№1 · Page 16 Why won't it accept my account number?№1 · Page 16 Will I lose my settings if I go back?№1 · Page 17 What happens after the last Continue?№1 · Page 18 Why is the Continue button greyed out?№1 · Appendix A The run was cancelled after 3 errors. Why?№1 · Appendix B My findings have no cost or savings figures.№1 · Appendix B How is a rightsizing recommendation calculated?№2 · Page 3 Why doesn't it just compare vCPU counts?№2 · Page 4 Does it use average CPU or peak?№2 · Page 5 What observation window does it look at?№2 · Page 5 What happens if a metric is missing?№2 · Page 6 Why is my memory utilisation blank?№2 · Page 7 What are the conservative / balanced / aggressive tiers?№2 · Page 8 How much headroom does it leave?№2 · Page 8 What do “Actionable” and “Conditional” mean?№2 · Page 9 Why is this recommendation only Conditional?№2 · Page 10 Why was my instance left alone?№2 · Page 11 Why does it skip instances in an Auto Scaling group?№2 · Page 11 Why is the Graviton saving never actionable?№2 · Page 13 Why is network missing from the 15-month trend?№2 · Page 14 Why don't small savings show up at all?№2 · Page 15 Does rightsizing work for RDS and ElastiCache?№2 · Page 17 What does this note on my recommendation mean?№2 · Appendix What is a check, exactly?№3 · Page 2 How many checks are there?№3 · Page 3 How do I change a check's thresholds?№3 · Page 5 Why wasn't my just-detached volume reported?№3 · Page 5 What information does a finding carry?№3 · Page 4 Why is there no button for this recommendation?№3 · Page 6 What does an action of “review” mean?№3 · Page 6 How do I turn a check off?№3 · Page 7 Why did a new check appear after upgrading?№3 · Page 7 How do I run MaxOps fully read-only?№3 · Page 8 Should I snooze or exempt this resource?№3 · Page 9 Why did a finding disappear from my dashboard?№3 · Page 9 Who snoozed this, and when?№3 · Page 10 What happens during a scan, in order?№3 · Page 11 What do Conservative, Normal and Aggressive do?№4 · Page 3 What does changing the preset actually change?№4 · Page 4 Is the Settings preset the same as a rightsizing tier?№4 · Page 5 How do I change one check without changing the rest?№4 · Page 6 Do a check's thresholds all have to be true at once?№4 · Page 7 I'm getting far too many findings. What now?№4 · Page 8 Why was I warned about losing my tuning?№4 · Page 9 What happens if I change the AWS account number?№4 · Page 10 Which settings are actually worth changing?№4 · Page 11 Can I ask an AI assistant about my cloud costs?№5 · Page 2 What kind of questions can I ask it?№5 · Page 3 What can the assistant actually reach?№5 · Page 4 Does my cloud data get sent anywhere?№5 · Page 6 Can the assistant change things in my account?№5 · Page 7 How do I let the assistant snooze findings?№5 · Page 8 Why is running a check treated as a write?№5 · Page 9 How do I connect MaxOps to my assistant?№5 · Page 10 My assistant can't see MaxOps. How do I debug it?№5 · Page 11 Can I see findings inside the AWS Console?№6 · Page 2 What do the chips on a Console row mean?№6 · Page 3 How do I install the browser extension?№6 · Page 4 Can the extension send my Console data anywhere?№6 · Page 6 Which resource types does the overlay cover?№6 · Page 7 Why are there no chips on my S3 buckets?№6 · Page 8 No chips appeared at all. What's wrong?№6 · Page 9 Why are my savings numbers different from my bill?№7 · Page 2 Does MaxOps know about my Reserved Instances?№7 · Page 2 What is a Cost and Usage Report?№7 · Page 3 What does amortized cost mean?№7 · Page 4 Why does a reserved instance show as costing nothing?№7 · Page 4 How do I price findings from my actual bill?№7 · Page 5 Why does cost data ask for different AWS credentials?№7 · Page 6 What is MaxOpsCostDataRole and why was it created?№7 · Page 6 Cost data says waiting on AWS. How long?№7 · Page 7 Will connecting my bill cost me money?№7 · Page 8 I turned cost data on but nothing changed№7 · Page 9 Why doesn't this match Cost Explorer?№7 · Page 10 A cost data step has turned red. What now?№7 · Page 11

LOOKING FOR THE REFERENCE MANUAL?

The comics are the guided path — the best way to learn a workflow the first time. For API endpoints, configuration keys, and the full check catalogue, the written docs go deeper.