sipi.bot vs Metronome billing
Metronome ingests usage events and computes bills in real time. That is not the same as blocking unauthorized spend — Metronome meters and prices; sipi.bot gates.
What Metronome does
Metronome processes usage events and produces real-time invoices. It does not enforce spend policies — it records and prices what already happened. An agent's runaway loop is priced exactly as accurately as normal spend; the bill just arrives faster.
Where they differ
| Dimension | Metronome | sipi.bot |
|---|---|---|
| Stage | Post-spend (metering) | Pre-spend (policy gate) |
| Decision | Records & prices | APPROVE/BLOCK/FLAG in <5ms |
| Loop protection | Prices the loop | Blocks at first violation |
| Audit trail | Billing records | Tamper-evident per-tx log |
| Human escalation | N/A | FLAGGED → approval queue |
Frequently asked questions
Do I need both Metronome and sipi.bot?
Yes. Billing platforms meter what was spent; sipi.bot gates what can be spent before it occurs. For autonomous agents, you need the billing engine for pricing and the firewall for policy enforcement.
Can sipi.bot integrate with Metronome?
The two layers operate independently. Your agent calls evaluate_spend before the transaction; if approved, the billing platform meters and prices the usage normally.
What's the failure mode without a firewall?
A retry loop generates valid usage events continuously. Without a pre-spend check, every event is metered, priced, and invoiced at full accuracy. The bill is correct — just catastrophically large.