Projects and findings

MilkStraw AI scans your AWS accounts and turns each issue it finds into a task, for example an idle resource, an outdated instance type, or an unencrypted database. Related tasks are grouped into projects, so you can work through them one batch at a time.

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The Overview page

The Overview page is your home for savings and findings.

• Scanned shows when MilkStraw AI last pulled data from your AWS accounts.
• Alerts lists access or setup issues that need your attention. See Troubleshooting.
• Available shows the monthly savings waiting in open cost tasks.
• Month to date savings combines your savings plan savings with the savings from cost tasks you solved this month.
• Savings activity shows your savings over the last 6 months.

The board groups your projects under Todo, Locked, and Completed. Until you activate every savings plan, a Savings plans card sits at the top of Todo. See Activate and track savings.

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How projects work

• Each project is named by its position, for example Project #1.
• Only one project is open at a time, under Todo. The next projects wait under Locked, and you can’t open them yet.
• A project is complete when none of its tasks are left in Todo or In progress. Solved, discarded, and archived tasks all count as done. The next locked project then opens.
• New findings join locked projects. After a scan, MilkStraw AI can regroup locked projects, but it never changes your open or completed projects.
• Completed projects are read-only.

Each project card shows its monthly savings, the tasks in progress, and how many tasks are completed.

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Find and review tasks

Open a project from the board to see its tasks in columns by status. You can search tasks by title, resource ID, or category, filter them by risk, and sort them by risk or savings. Each task covers one finding on one resource, in one AWS account and Region. The task card shows its number, title, risk (Critical, High, Medium, or Low), and categories: Cost, Security, Hygiene, or Modernization. Open a task to see:

• Monthly savings — what you save when you fix it. Some tasks show Additional monthly cost or Monthly impact instead.
• Status, Risk, Confidence, and Reversible.
• Source and Detected — where the finding comes from and when MilkStraw AI last detected it.
• Details — resource details such as type, Region, size, and launch time.
• Step-by-step instructions, with commands you can copy and links to the AWS Console.
• Activity — who changed the task and when.

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Work on a task

You can drag a card between Todo and In progress. Use the Status menu on the task page for everything else.

• Mark a task as solved: choose Solved. MilkStraw AI fetches fresh data for the resource and checks it again. You see Finding solved 🎉 when the finding is gone, or Still detected when it’s still there, and the task stays where it was.
• Discard a task: choose Discarded if you don’t plan to act on it. You can restore it to Todo later, as long as its project isn’t completed.
• Check again: click Re-evaluate to check the finding right away. You can re-evaluate each task once a minute.

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Automatic updates

You don’t have to update every task by hand:

• When a scan no longer finds an issue, MilkStraw AI marks its task as Solved. This includes discarded tasks.
• If the issue comes back, the task returns to Todo. If its project is already completed, a new task appears in a later project.
• If MilkStraw AI loses access to an AWS account, or the account is suspended or closed, its open tasks move to Archived. They return to Todo if the findings show up again after you reconnect the account.
• Most checks run every hour. Some, such as idle resource checks, run once a day.

For larger changes, such as moving to new instance types, see our guides.