Install CloudBurn

Set up the CloudBurn app from GitHub Marketplace to start visualizing your infrastructure costs directly in Pull Requests.

Overview

CloudBurn is a GitHub App that analyzes your infrastructure changes and provides cost estimates directly in your Pull Requests. It works seamlessly with both AWS CDK and Terraform projects, helping your team make informed decisions about infrastructure costs before deployment.

Prerequisites

Before installing CloudBurn, you need to have one of the following GitHub Actions configured in your repository:

For AWS CDK Projects

Install and configure the AWS CDK Diff GitHub Action to generate CDK diffs on Pull Requests:

For Terraform Projects

Install and configure the Terraform Plan GitHub Action to generate Terraform plans on Pull Requests:

Installation Steps

1) Install CloudBurn from GitHub Marketplace

  1. Visit the CloudBurn GitHub Marketplace page
  2. Click "Install it for free" or "Set up a plan"
  3. Choose whether to install CloudBurn for:
    • All repositories in your organization (recommended for teams)
    • Only select repositories (for testing or specific projects)
  4. Click "Install" to authorize CloudBurn

2) Grant Repository Permissions

CloudBurn requires the following permissions to function:

  • Read access to:

    • Contents (to read repository files)
    • Pull requests (to read PR information)

  • Write access to:

    • Pull requests (to post cost analysis comments)

These permissions are automatically configured during installation.

3) Verify Installation

After installation, CloudBurn will automatically start analyzing Pull Requests that contain infrastructure changes:

  1. Create a test Pull Request with infrastructure changes
  2. Wait for your CDK diff or Terraform plan GitHub Action to complete
  3. CloudBurn will automatically post a cost analysis comment within a few seconds

The comment will show:

  • Estimated monthly cost changes
  • Cost breakdown by resource type
  • Comparison between current and proposed infrastructure costs

What Happens Next

Once CloudBurn is installed:

  1. Automatic Analysis: CloudBurn monitors your Pull Requests for infrastructure changes
  2. Cost Estimates: When it detects a CDK diff or Terraform plan, it analyzes the changes and calculates cost impacts
  3. PR Comments: Cost analysis is posted as a comment directly on the Pull Request
  4. Updates: CloudBurn automatically updates its comment when new commits are pushed to the PR

Configuration Options

CloudBurn works out of the box with default settings, but you can customize its behavior:

Multi-Environment Support

If you're using custom headers in your CDK diff or Terraform plan workflows, CloudBurn will post separate cost analyses for each environment:

# Example: Using headers for multi-environment setups
- name: Post CDK Diff Comment
  uses: towardsthecloud/aws-cdk-diff-pr-commenter@v1
  with:
    diff-file: dev-diff.txt
    header: "Dev Environment"  # CloudBurn will recognize this
    aws-region: us-east-1

Repository-Specific Settings

CloudBurn automatically adapts to your repository structure and workflow configuration. No additional configuration files are needed.

Troubleshooting

CloudBurn comment not appearing

Symptoms: Pull Request has infrastructure changes but no cost analysis comment.

Solutions:

  1. Verify the CDK diff or Terraform plan GitHub Action completed successfully
  2. Check that the diff/plan output is properly formatted
  3. Ensure CloudBurn has permissions to access the repository
  4. Verify CloudBurn is installed for the correct repository or organization

Cost estimates seem incorrect

Symptoms: Cost analysis shows unexpected values.

Solutions:

  1. Review the infrastructure changes in your diff/plan output
  2. Verify AWS region is correctly specified in your workflow
  3. Check that resource types are supported by CloudBurn
  4. Note that some resources may not have cost estimates available

Multiple cost analysis comments

Symptoms: Multiple CloudBurn comments appear on the same PR.

Solutions:

  1. This is expected behavior for multi-environment setups with custom headers
  2. Each header creates a separate cost analysis comment
  3. To reduce comments, use a single workflow without headers

Uninstalling CloudBurn

To remove CloudBurn from your repositories:

  1. Go to your GitHub organization or account settings
  2. Navigate to Settings > GitHub Apps
  3. Find CloudBurn in the list
  4. Click Configure
  5. Scroll down and click Uninstall or adjust repository access

Support

Need help with CloudBurn? Here's how to get support:

  • GitHub Action Issues: If you're having issues with the CDK diff or Terraform plan actions, visit their respective documentation pages
  • CloudBurn App Issues: For issues specific to cost analysis or the CloudBurn app itself, contact us through the GitHub Marketplace page

Next Steps

  • Review your first cost analysis on a Pull Request
  • Explore AWS CDK Diff examples for advanced CDK workflows
  • Explore Terraform Plan examples for advanced Terraform workflows
  • Share CloudBurn with your team to improve infrastructure cost visibility
← DocumentationOverview →