sipi.bot vs Orb billing
Orb is a usage-based billing platform — it meters and invoices. sipi.bot is a pre-spend firewall — it blocks before dollars move. They are complementary.
What Orb does
Orb meters usage, computes bills, and manages subscription logic. It does not evaluate whether a transaction should be allowed. It operates on the billing side, after spend has occurred. For autonomous agents, the gap is timing: Orb tells you what you owe after the fact.
Where they differ
| Dimension | Orb | 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 Orb 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 Orb?
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.