Scenario: Cross-Agent Budget Race
Two agents share a daily budget. One spends early and fast; the other starves — or both loop retrying. The shared ceiling needs a design, not just a number.
What happens
Agent A consumes the shared ceiling by lunch; Agent B's legitimate work gets BLOCKED all afternoon.
Teams respond by raising the ceiling — which defeats the budget.
What happens with sipi.bot
Per-agent ceilings on top of the shared ceiling: each agent gets its own slice AND the fleet has a cap.
Priority handling: critical agents get higher ceilings; the shared cap stays intact.
The rule set
Shared fleet ceiling + per-agent ceilings + approval threshold for over-budget requests.
The design
Fleet ceiling: $1,000/day
Agent A: $600/day (critical path)
Agent B: $400/day (batch)
Over-budget requests: FLAGGED for approval
Slices + a cap beats a race.
FAQ
Is a shared ceiling bad?
No — it's necessary. The fix is per-agent slices inside it.
What if a critical agent needs more mid-day?
The approval queue handles it: FLAG over-budget requests, approve the ones that matter.
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.
See plans — from $99/mo Try a live check