Usage limits

One request is not the whole risk. Counters let a rule consider activity across requests, such as the number of commands in a session or total refunds for a customer over 24 hours.

Define the counter and the rule

In the policy’s Counters section, choose what to count or sum, which actions contribute, how to group them, and the rolling window. Without grouping, the counter covers matching activity across the workspace.

Use the counter’s values in a rule to decide when to allow, require approval, or block. The counter measures usage; the rule sets the authority boundary.

Value	Meaning
settled	Confirmed completed usage within the window.
held	Capacity retained for pending, executing, or uncertain actions.
current	Settled usage plus held capacity.
delta	This request’s contribution. It can be zero when the request only reads the counter.
projected	Current usage plus this request’s contribution.

For a £2,000 refund limit, a counter summing integer GBP minor units can compare projected usage with 200000. Use projected usage when the rule must include the proposed action. Checking only settled usage leaves pending actions out of the limit.

Report what happened

Allowed and approval-required decisions can hold capacity while work is pending. Monitoring also retains capacity for results other than Block.

For ordinary decision requests, a confirmed Success converts pending capacity into completed usage. A definitive Failure releases pending capacity. Missing, Cancelled, or Unknown reports leave the outcome unresolved and can continue to consume capacity. Do not report Failure merely because a network call timed out.

A reported success after a Block is retained as evidence and can count toward usage even though it did not have permission. Repeated success reports do not count the same decision twice.

Managed execution has its own claim and outcome-reporting flow. An unclaimed authorization can expire; an executing or uncertain operation continues to hold capacity until resolved. An independent decision report cannot settle that managed execution.

Change a counter deliberately

Changing a rule’s threshold can preserve the accumulated count. Changing the counter’s measure, unit, grouping, filter, window, or relevant policy scope can restart it without historical backfill. Review the restart warning before publishing.

Completed usage falls out of a rolling window over time. Tests use supplied counter values and do not reserve live capacity.

These controls are separate from workspace allowances shown in Plan & usage.