# Budgeting

> Expose active budgets to the agent so it can check the remaining balance and adjust its own spending.

Source: <https://everruns.com/docs/capabilities/budgeting/>

|                  |                |
| ---------------- | -------------- |
| **ID**           | `budgeting`    |
| **Category**     | Cost Control   |
| **Features**     | `budgeting`    |
| **Included in**  | Worker harness |
| **Dependencies** | None           |

Makes an agent aware of its budget constraints. The agent receives budget information in its system prompt and can proactively check remaining balance before expensive operations.

## Tools

### `check_budget`

Query the budget status for the current session.

> **Note:** The current implementation returns a placeholder response indicating whether budgets are configured. Full budget data (balance, limit, status per budget) requires worker-side tool interception, which is planned for a future iteration. In the meantime, use the REST API (`GET /v1/sessions/{id}/budget-check`) for detailed budget status.

| Parameter | Type | Required | Description            |
| --------- | ---- | -------- | ---------------------- |
| *(none)*  |      |          | No parameters required |

## Behavior

When the `budgeting` capability is enabled:

1. **System prompt injection**: The agent’s system prompt includes a “Budget Awareness” section with the current budget status and guidelines for efficient output.

2. **Self-regulation**: When budget is running low, the agent prioritizes completing current tasks efficiently rather than exploring new directions or generating verbose output.

3. **Proactive checking**: The agent can call `check_budget` before starting expensive operations (large code generation, multi-step tool chains) to decide whether to proceed or ask the user.

## Related

* [Budgets](https://everruns.com/docs/advanced/budgets/), full budgeting system documentation (limits, currencies, API, CLI)