How to Set Up Agent Spend Controls
Five steps, one afternoon: inventory, rules, defaults, approvals, review. Here's the setup.
Step 1 — Inventory
List your spend-capable agents: what they buy, from whom.
Step 2 — Set the core rules
Per-transaction cap, merchant allowlist, velocity limit — three rules cover most risk.
Step 3 — Set defaults
New agents inherit caps and allowlists until their own rules exist.
Step 4 — Add approvals
An approval threshold flags material spend for a human.
Step 5 — Review weekly
Read the audit log, tune rules, one change at a time.
FAQ
How long does setup take?
An afternoon for the rules; a week of audit-log data to tune them.
What's the minimum?
A cap, an allowlist, and a velocity limit per spend-capable agent.
Related
Stop the next $12,400 night.
One API call (or MCP tool) in front of every agent transaction — APPROVED, BLOCKED, or FLAGGED, deterministic, ~5 ms, fully logged.
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