Cost governance / hard cap
Spend limits on agents and tenants, with a hard cap that blocks a run before it overspends.
category ▸ Operations
Cost governance / hard cap, in plain language.
Cost governance puts financial limits around AI usage so that token and tool spend cannot run away unobserved. Budgets are scoped — per agent or per tenant — over a rolling window, with an alert threshold that warns as spend approaches the limit and a hard cap that enforces it.
The difference between a soft and a hard cap is enforcement. A soft cap notifies; a hard cap blocks. For autonomous agents that can take thousands of actions a minute, a hard cap is the control that turns "we should keep an eye on cost" into "this cannot exceed its budget."
How Cortex implements it.
This term isn't abstract here — it maps to a real capability in the runtime. Here is exactly how Cortex enforces or relates to it.
Cortex computes spend live from actual run cost over a rolling 30-day window — no drift-prone counter — and evaluates the applicable tenant and agent policies before each run. An alert threshold flips status to alert; a hard cap blocks the run (402) when projected spend would exceed the cap.
Threshold and exceeded events are emitted so the Control Tower and the ledger can surface them — cost becomes a governed control, not a surprise on the monthly bill.
Keep building the vocabulary.
These terms sit next to this one in the governed-AI model — follow the thread to see how the controls connect.
Kill switch
An instant control that stops an agent or tool server from acting, immediately.
Control Tower
The live operations console for the whole agent fleet — watch, gate, pause, or kill.
Governance gate
A single decision point that allows, holds, or blocks a proposed agent action.
Risk tier
A classification of how consequential an agent or action is, used to set the controls it needs.
See Cost governance / hard cap enforced, not just defined.
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