The customer sets the AI budget, and the agent obeys their number

An analyst caps her intern-agent at max_cost_usd: 5 so it can't run away. Your customers cap yours.

Each tenant's container runs its own agent loop, the weekly inbox digest, interval: 24h. The Settings page has one field, AI budget this month, and it writes straight through to a PATCH on the loop's max_cost_usd. The customer types 3, the loop stops at three dollars of tokens. They raise it to 10, the same PATCH revives the ceiling and the loop resumes on schedule.

Tokens go through the Hoody AI Gateway: container-scoped auth, 5% over provider cost, drawn from your AI Balance. Your server cost doesn't move; a stopped loop is a paused process on a flat-rate box.

The manager's leash became the customer's meter. Nobody gets a surprise.

The budget field isn't yours to guard. It's theirs to set.