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How StackSage works

Install with pip, connect your AWS credentials, run one command. Here's exactly what happens from first install to full audit report.

Get Started →View Sample Report →
1

Install StackSage

One command. No containers, no CI pipeline required. Works on macOS, Linux, and Windows.

pip install stacksage
2

Set your license key (Pro) or run free

The free tier gives you the top 50 findings with no sign-up. For the full unlimited report, set your license key as an environment variable.

# Free tier — just run:
stacksage scan

# Pro license:
export STACKSAGE_LICENSE=STACKSAGE1.eyJ...
stacksage scan
3

Connect your AWS account

StackSage uses your existing AWS credentials — no new keys to create. Works with any credential method.

# Use the default profile:
stacksage scan

# Use a named SSO profile:
stacksage scan --profile my-sso-profile

# Assume a read-only cross-account role:
stacksage scan --role-arn arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/ReadOnly
4

stacksage scan runs — 2 to 5 minutes

StackSage queries your account with read-only API calls across EC2, RDS, EBS, Lambda, S3, IAM, VPC, CloudWatch, and more. No data leaves your machine.

$ stacksage scan
[1/13] EC2 instances...          done  (3 findings)
[2/13] EBS volumes & snapshots... done  (5 findings)
[3/13] RDS instances...          done  (2 findings)
[4/13] Lambda functions...       done  (4 findings)
[5/13] S3 buckets...             done  (1 finding)
[6/13] IAM posture...            done  (6 findings)
...
Report saved → ./stacksage_report/audit_report.html
Opening in browser...
5

Review your full audit report

The HTML report opens in your browser automatically. Every finding includes a savings estimate, confidence score, evidence, and copyable AWS CLI verification commands.

What you get

summary.md

CTO-ready one-pager. Paste into Slack, Jira, or an exec email.

# StackSage Audit Summary

- Findings: 17
- Est. monthly savings: $312/mo
- CloudWatch: enabled (14d)

Top actions:
1) Delete unused EBS (~$84/mo)
2) Migrate gp2 → gp3 (~$51/mo)
3) Fix open security groups

findings.json / .csv

Machine-readable for automation, dashboards, and internal reporting.

[{
  "type": "ebs_unattached_volume",
  "id": "vol-0abc123",
  "severity": "high",
  "estimated_monthly_savings_usd": 42.00,
  "verification_commands": [
    "aws ec2 describe-volumes ..."
  ]
}]

audit_report.html

Shareable HTML with evidence, metrics, and remediation commands. No login required to open.

audit_report.html
─ Executive summary
─ Per-service findings
─ Evidence & metrics
─ Remediation commands
─ Provenance (data sources)

What to do next