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Compact two-skill starter: clarify positioning and choose a lead magnet. Use Marketing Launch for the broader eight-skill go-to-market workflow.
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Compact two-skill starter: clarify positioning and choose a lead magnet. Use Marketing Launch for the broader eight-skill go-to-market workflow.
Build an evidence-led marketing plan from ICP and competition through positioning, campaigns, growth and measurement.
Diagnose architecture and context, plan agent-team responsibilities, then organize project context and session handoffs. Memory and cost-runtime reviews remain outside this pack.
Review the journey from landing page and lead capture through registration, first value and transparent upgrades.
Plan a campaign, draft its channel content and review the work against actual brand guidance.
Prioritize an editorial roadmap and plan how to launch and distribute it across suitable channels.
Understand customer needs, compare competitors and plan a community around real member value.
Choose a relevant lead magnet, then draft a permission-based nurture journey with entry, suppression and exit rules.
Define the API contract, then plan how to observe its latency, failures and retries. Guidance and checklist; no production changes.
Profile a dataset, choose and interpret statistical methods, then validate calculations and conclusions before sharing.
Analyze BigQuery job and reservation telemetry to compare slot capacity and cost options.
---
name: bigquery-slot-cost-optimizer
description: >-
Analyzes Google Cloud BigQuery slot consumption, query costs, and execution
bottlenecks using INFORMATION_SCHEMA. Use when diagnosing slow BigQuery queries,
slot starvation, high on-demand query costs, unpartitioned table scans, or join
performance issues. Don't use for generic BigQuery administration (use
bigquery-basics), BigQuery ML (use bigquery-ai-ml), or DataFrame operations
(use bigquery-bigframes).
metadata:
version: 1.0.0
publisher: google
category: BigDataAndAnalytics
tags:
- bigquery
- performance
- cost-optimization
- slot-analysis
- sql
---
# BigQuery slot and cost optimizer
This skill equips AI agents and cloud engineers with procedural heuristics to analyze BigQuery resource consumption, calculate slot hours, identify slot contention and queueing, mitigate Cartesian joins, and optimize unpartitioned table scans.
## Trigger conditions and intent mapping
Activate this skill whenever the user asks to:
- "Optimize BigQuery query performance or reduce slot usage"
- "Find the most expensive queries in BigQuery"
- "Diagnose BigQuery slot contention or queueing"
- "Fix slow running BigQuery jobs or memory spillage"
- "Detect Cartesian joins or row count explosions in BigQuery"
- "Identify unpartitioned table scans or missing partition filters"
## Prerequisites and environment setup
Before executing this skill, ensure the environment is configured with the necessary SDKs, permissions, and billing:
1. **Cloud SDK and client library installation**:
- Install the Google Cloud CLI: [Google Cloud SDK installation guide](https://docs.cloud.google.com/sdk/docs/install-sdk.md.txt)
- Install the BigQuery Python client:
```bash
pip install google-cloud-bigquery
```
1. **Project, billing, and regional selection**:
- Set the active project:
```bash
gcloud config set project <PROJECT_ID>
```
- **Important**: the target Google Cloud project must have an active Cloud Billing account attached.
- **Regional selection**: specify the target BigQuery dataset location or execution region, as BigQuery `INFORMATION_SCHEMA` views are strictly region-scoped (for example, multi-regions like `region-us` or `region-eu`, or single regions like `region-us-central1`). Querying the wrong region returns empty job telemetry. Pass the matching region via `--region` (the script automatically normalizes location names like `us-central1` to `region-us-central1`). For valid location identifiers, see [BigQuery locations](https://docs.cloud.google.com/bigquery/docs/locations.md.txt).
1. **API enablement**:
- Enable the BigQuery API on the project:
```bash
gcloud services enable bigquery.googleapis.com
```
1. **Authentication setup**:
- Authenticate the local gcloud environment and configure Application Default Credentials (ADC):
```bash
gcloud auth login
gcloud auth application-default login
```
1. **IAM roles and permissions**:
- The executing principal requires the following minimum IAM roles:
- `roles/bigquery.jobUser`: grants permission to run queries and analyze telemetry.
- `roles/bigquery.resourceViewer`: grants read-only access to query metadata in `INFORMATION_SCHEMA.JOBS_BY_PROJECT` and capacity reservations.
1. **Pricing reference**:
- Cost estimates in this skill are for planning purposes. Before running `scripts/slot_analyzer.py`, retrieve live BigQuery billing rates at runtime from official [Google Cloud BigQuery Pricing](https://cloud.google.com/bigquery/pricing) (and consult [BigQuery editions introduction](https://docs.cloud.google.com/bigquery/docs/editions-intro.md.txt) for edition capabilities) after considering user-specific parameters such as target region, chosen edition (`Standard`, `Enterprise`, `Enterprise Plus`), and commitment tier (`Pay-as-you-go`, `1-year`, `3-year`). Pass these runtime-fetched rates explicitly via `--ondemand-rate <USD_PER_TIB>` and `--slot-hour-rate <USD_PER_SLOT_HOUR>`.
## Diagnostic execution workflow
### Execute automated telemetry extraction
Run `scripts/slot_analyzer.py` to pull and analyze historical query telemetry from `INFORMATION_SCHEMA.JOBS_BY_PROJECT`, passing the runtime-retrieved pricing rates for your specific region, edition, and commitment tier:
```bash
# General analysis passing live regional pricing rates fetched from BigQuery pricing
python3 scripts/slot_analyzer.py --project-id <PROJECT_ID> --days 7 \
--ondemand-rate <USD_PER_TIB> --slot-hour-rate <USD_PER_SLOT_HOUR> --format table
# Output structured JSON for programmatically parsing recommendations
python3 scripts/slot_analyzer.py --project-id <PROJECT_ID> --days 7 \
--ondemand-rate <USD_PER_TIB> --slot-hour-rate <USD_PER_SLOT_HOUR> --format json
# Offline verification mode using synthetic or extracted telemetry
python3 scripts/slot_analyzer.py --mock-data-file path/to/extracted_telemetry.json \
--ondemand-rate <USD_PER_TIB> --slot-hour-rate <USD_PER_SLOT_HOUR> --format table
# Dry-run mode to inspect regional SQL query
python3 scripts/slot_analyzer.py --project-id <PROJECT_ID> --region region-us --dry-run
```
Run `python3 scripts/slot_analyzer.py --help` to inspect all supported CLI flags, focus modes (`--mode`), and required pricing rate arguments (`--ondemand-rate` per TiB and `--slot-hour-rate` per slot-hour).
## Metric interpretation and decision tree
Evaluate the telemetry output using the following decision rules. **CRITICAL MANDATE: After classifying the query issue using the decision tree below, you MUST immediately call `view_file` on [references/remediation_playbooks.md](references/remediation_playbooks.md) to read and execute the corresponding remediation playbook (`Rule SLOT-001`, `Rule JOIN-001`, or `Rule PART-001`) and include all mandatory diagnostic SQL queries and 4-step checklists in your response.**
```
[Query Telemetry Analyzed]
|
+---> If wait_ratio_avg > 0.40 OR slot_contention == TRUE
| --> Classify as slot contention and queueing (Rule SLOT-001)
| --> MANDATORY: Read Rule SLOT-001 in references/remediation_playbooks.md
|
+---> If shuffle_output_bytes_spilled > 0 OR records_written > 10 * records_read
| --> Classify as Cartesian join (Rule JOIN-001)
| --> MANDATORY: Read Rule JOIN-001 in references/remediation_playbooks.md
|
+---> If total_bytes_billed > 10 GB AND no date/partition filters
| --> Classify as unpartitioned scan (Rule PART-001)
| --> MANDATORY: Read Rule PART-001 in references/remediation_playbooks.md
|
+---> Otherwise
--> Check BI Engine, search indexes, or materialized view opportunities
--> MANDATORY: Read references/optimization_rules.md
```
## Remediation playbooks and architectural reference links
To minimize token consumption in `SKILL.md`, concrete remediation playbooks (`Rule SLOT-001`, `Rule JOIN-001`, `Rule PART-001`), diagnostic SQL queries, and DDL rewrite patterns are housed in `references/`:
- **Rule SLOT-001 (Slot contention and queueing)**: [Rule SLOT-001 playbook](references/remediation_playbooks.md#rule-slot-001-slot-contention-and-queueing)
- **Rule JOIN-001 (Cartesian and exploding joins)**: [Rule JOIN-001 playbook](references/remediation_playbooks.md#rule-join-001-cartesian-and-exploding-joins)
- **Rule PART-001 (Unpartitioned scans and partition pruning)**: [Rule PART-001 playbook](references/remediation_playbooks.md#rule-part-001-unpartitioned-scans-and-partition-pruning)
- **Table partitioning, multi-column clustering, and BI Engine**: [optimization rules](references/optimization_rules.md)
- **BigQuery search indexes and materialized views**: [optimization rules](references/optimization_rules.md)
## Verification and validation protocol
Before finalizing query rewrites:
### Dry-run validation
Validate query syntax and calculate estimated bytes scanned without incurring cost:
```python
from google.cloud import bigquery
client = bigquery.Client()
job_config = bigquery.QueryJobConfig(dry_run=True, use_query_cache=False)
query_job = client.query(optimized_sql, job_config=job_config)
print(f"Scanned bytes: {query_job.total_bytes_processed / (1024**3):.2f} GB")
```
### Offline and dry-run validation
- **Offline mock telemetry verification**: validate heuristic classification, slot contention detection, Cartesian join identification, and cost estimation offline using synthetic or extracted JSON telemetry payloads (`--mock-data-file`):
```bash
python3 scripts/slot_analyzer.py --mock-data-file path/to/extracted_telemetry.json \
--ondemand-rate <USD_PER_TIB> --slot-hour-rate <USD_PER_SLOT_HOUR> --format table
```
- **CLI dry-run inspection**: verify regional SQL query formation and script execution without contacting BigQuery or incurring costs:
```bash
python3 scripts/slot_analyzer.py --project-id <PROJECT_ID> --region region-us --dry-run
```
Analyze BigQuery job and reservation telemetry to compare slot capacity and cost options.
Complete original guidance with source attribution and declared limitations.
Clarify the actual task, inspect available evidence and plan the relevant source workflow within authorized scope.
Project, job telemetry, reservations, billing model and permitted metadata access.
Telemetry coverage and billing assumptions limit estimates; proposed reservation changes are not executed. Referenced scripts, templates, packages and remote documentation are not bundled or installed. Brief obvious-danger screening only; no functional test or comprehensive security certification.
Use BigQuery Slot Cost Optimization for [TASK]. Clarify Project, job telemetry, reservations, billing model and permitted metadata access. Identify missing dependencies and assumptions. Loading this guidance grants no permission to change resources, transfer data or incur charges.
Automatic cloud execution, bypassing resource-owner permissions, or treating untested examples as deployed and verified results.
German task routing and precise scope. Original attribution: Google (google/skills repository). Telemetry coverage and billing assumptions limit estimates; proposed reservation changes are not executed. Referenced scripts, templates, packages and remote documentation are not bundled or installed. Brief obvious-danger screening only; no functional test or comprehensive security certification.
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