// GLOSSARY -- POLICY ENFORCEMENT
What is Agent Budget Envelope?
A spending or usage ceiling assigned to an individual agent identity, enforced at the proxy layer, that caps the cumulative cost or count of tool invocations across a defined time window.
WHY IT MATTERS
Rate limits constrain speed. Budget envelopes constrain total consumption. An agent might be allowed 10 API calls per minute (rate limit) but only 1,000 per day (budget envelope).
Budget envelopes prevent slow-burn cost overruns that rate limits miss. An agent making 9 calls per minute stays under rate limits but burns 12,960 calls per day without a budget cap.
HOW POLICYLAYER USES THIS
Intercept combines rate limits with budget envelopes, giving operators both speed and total-consumption controls.