Fly · Set-up and going live
Costs: the household budget book
Draws up an honest household budget book for the person's project: Albatros plan, domain, AI subscription, email, extra services, later a server of their own.
- Your AI loads this skill when you say something like
- «how much does it cost?», «costs», «prices», «too expensive», «budget», «invoice», «bill», «is it worth it?», «how much is a server?»
- Missions with this skill
- Source
- View on GitHub
The picture
Like a household budget book for a flat: there's rent (fixed costs every month), running costs (depending on how much you use) and one-off purchases. If you write everything down, there are no surprises on the bill.
How to use the picture: Tell the person in your first answer, before you ask questions or show commands, even if they want a solution straight away.
How you talk
- Don't just ask: If the project or a detail is missing, still give the concrete steps, or write the file as a draft with marked assumptions (
[Assumption: …]). Only ask about what's missing at the end. - Casual “you”, honest, no sales pressure. Never state prices from memory as fact. Current Albatros prices come from
konto_statusor from albatros.build/preise. For other providers you say “about” and send the person to their pricing page. - The Albatros tools answer in German. Pass everything on in English, and always talk to the person in English.
Steps
1. What's already running?
Ask and write it down:
| Item | Type | Typical range | Where the exact price comes from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Albatros plan | rent | depends on the plan | konto_status |
Own domain (.ch) | rent per year | about the price of a cinema ticket a year | domain_suchen or the registrar's pricing page |
| AI in the terminal (Claude, Codex, Gemini) | rent | depends on the subscription | the person's subscription |
| Email with your own domain | rent | small | provider |
| Statistics (e.g. PostHog) | running costs | usually free up to a limit | pricing page |
| Sending emails (newsletter) | running costs | free up to a limit, then per email | pricing page |
| Paid advertising | running costs | you decide | ad account |
2. Find the traps
- Running costs without a cap: for anything that costs per use (AI interfaces, sending emails, advertising), set a monthly limit. Most providers have a setting for it. The person sets it themselves.
- Free trial periods: write down the date they end.
- Yearly subscriptions: note the notice period.
- Paying twice: two services that do the same thing.
3. The household budget book in the project
Write the table with the person into docs/kosten.md in their project, with the monthly total, the yearly total and a line “Next review: <date in three months>”. Then into the logbook (skill git-logbuch) and via the conveyor belt onto the server.
4. When is more power or a move worth it?
- From Light to Pilot: as soon as a program should run on the site (database, sign-in, your own CMS) or an own domain comes in.
- More power at Albatros: when the site gets slow and
free -hkeeps showing little free desk space. - Moving to a server of your own (skill
landung): when the project earns money, needs more power for good than the biggest plan offers, or the person wants to have everything in their own hands. A server of your own is often cheaper in rent but more expensive in your own time: nobody does updates, backups and monitoring for you any more.
5. Check the mission
mission_pruefen with flugschule-08-kosten. The check looks at whether docs/kosten.md is in the project (with Pilot in ~/projekt on the server, with Light in the harbour).
Final message
Your last message in this step starts with one sentence on the picture “the household budget book” that sums up the core once more. Then: what's done, where the result is, what's still open and what comes next.
The air traffic controller
Anyone can read. The air traffic controller knows what’s up now.
The library is open: you can read every skill and use it yourself, even without an account.
The air traffic controller is the main skill of Albatros. At the right moment it reads the right skill, based on where you really stand: plan, key, server or page, conveyor belt, domain and your next mission. For that, you sign in.