Budgets

This page settles what a budget is for: a per-node dollar ceiling by tier, enforced by one rule — split, never raise — and a record of exactly what happened when a task hit its ceiling.

Ceilings are per node, by tier

Every node in a graph (plan, build, review and the rest) has a dollar ceiling for its session. The provider profile sets it: budget_usd per tier (the Claude Code profile: cheap $0.15, standard $0.35, deep $0.80), and role_budget_usd for roles that need a different number, such as the reviewers. The ceiling is a property of the node and the tier, not something a single run negotiates for itself.

A build is the exception that proves the rule. Its budget is a guide for one slice, not a ceiling for the task. The guide is estimated from the repository's recent builds, clamped to $1.00 to $4.00. At the guide the harness judges go or no-go; a build that passes resumes. The provider profile's role_ceiling_usd (the Claude Code profile: build $6) is the failsafe on the build's cumulative spend. See Autonomous chair.

Split, never raise

When a task is going to exceed its ceiling, the answer is not a bigger number. It is a smaller task. A task that needs more budget than its tier allows was too large for one task, the same way a ticket that needs three pull requests was really three tickets. Raising the ceiling to fit the task hides the signal that the task should have been split before it ever ran.

budget_usd on an item

A work item can carry its own budget_usd. It replaces the estimated build guide for that item. It may be higher than the estimate, but never higher than the cartridge's build_budget_usd_max (base: $6). The harness refuses an item that asks for more and quotes the cap. See Policy.

What a budget stop records

When a node hits its ceiling, the run stops there rather than continuing on credit. What gets recorded is the amount spent against the ceiling, the node that was running, and the task it was working — enough for a human to see whether the task needs splitting or the ceiling needs revisiting for that tier generally, as a policy change, not as an exception for one run.