Setting up a budget
Five limits, all off by default, and what each one stops.
Nothing is allowed until you allow it. A new agent cannot spend anything, and that is the starting state rather than a step you missed.
All five limits are checked before any money moves. Every one has to pass.
Per day
total across the day
Per job
ring-fenced amount
Per purchase
largest single buy
Who it may pay
sellers you allow
Ask me first
above your threshold
Every purchase is checked against all five before a wallet is asked to sign
How much a day
On the agent's page, the Budget panel. This is the ceiling across everything the agent buys in a day, and it resets each midnight.
Purchases still in flight already count against it, so two requests arriving at once cannot both slip through on the same remaining balance.
Start small. You can change it whenever you like, and it takes effect on the next purchase.
How much per job
A separate, ring-fenced amount for one piece of work, opened from the Task budgets panel or by the agent itself.
It sits alongside the daily limit rather than replacing it, so a purchase has to fit both.
This is what stops a stuck agent burning a whole day on one task. It loops inside its envelope, runs out, and stops.
How much at once
Also in the Budget panel. The most any single purchase may cost.
You can set this in tokens, or in dollars.
If you set a dollar limit and live pricing is unavailable, Pocket refuses the purchase rather than guessing. Setting a limit in dollars means dollars matter, and quietly ignoring it because a price feed was down would be the wrong reading of that.
Who it may pay
In the Policy panel. Keep a list of sellers you trust. For anyone not on it, you choose what happens:
| Setting | What happens |
|---|---|
| Block | Refused outright |
| Ask me first | Held until you approve it |
| Allow | Goes through, still subject to every other limit |
The same panel controls which kinds of spend are allowed, so you can let an agent buy data but not compute.
When to ask you
The approval threshold, also in the Policy panel. Above an amount you pick, a person has to release the purchase.
The agent waits, and nothing is signed while it does. You approve or reject from the payments screen.
Testing a limit before you rely on it
The agent's page has a Preview panel. Describe a purchase and it runs the real decision against your real limits, showing you the answer without recording anything or spending a cent.
Worth using after any change you are unsure about.
When something is refused
Open the row on Payments. It names the rule that stopped it and how much room was left:
Refused Full market report
Amount 0.75 USDC
Seller market-data.example.com
Rule per-job budget
Left 0.03 of 0.50