Tool-Call Budget Guard
Cap an agent's tool calls with per-tool budgets and graceful degradation when exhausted — so runaway agents don't blow through API quotas.
🧠 Why it works
Agents loop. Loops hit API limits. The default failure mode is 'keep trying, accumulate costs, fail late.' Injecting a budget signal into the tool response lets the agent adapt its plan (skip a step, batch, use a cheaper tool) rather than retry until quota is gone.
⚙️ How it works
- Wrap each tool with a budget check: pre-call decrement, post-call refund on error. 2. Expose the remaining budget to the agent via a system message appended to the tool response: 'budget: 3/10 remaining.' 3. When a budget drops below a threshold, send a softer signal; when it hits zero, return a structured error the agent reads and reasons about. 4. Emit a per-run spend log so you can retrospectively tune budgets.
Description
Middleware that enforces per-tool and per-run budgets on an agent. When a budget is near exhaustion, it warns the agent in the tool response. When exhausted, it denies the call with a structured error the agent can reason about — instead of silently failing or consuming beyond the limit.
Install this skill
A Claude skill is a skill.md file with YAML frontmatter and a markdown body.
Drop the file into your tool of choice — or pick a different format if you use Cursor, Windsurf, Copilot, or something else.
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/tool-call-budget-guard \
&& curl -L https://aidiveforge.com/skill/tool-call-budget-guard.skill-md \
-o ~/.claude/skills/tool-call-budget-guard/skill.mdSave to ~/.claude/skills/tool-call-budget-guard/skill.md
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