gbrain/docs/operations/spend-controls.md

Spend controls

GBrain's embedding-spend gates in one place: every gate, its config key, default, whether it blocks or just informs, how to widen or disable it, and how the spend.posture switch governs all of them.

The orienting idea: GBrain itself is rounding error; the spend that matters is downstream embedding. These gates exist so a routine sync or enrich can't run up an unexpected embedding bill, while never wedging an unattended cron.

spend.posture — one switch for "cost is not my constraint"

gbrain config set spend.posture tokenmax   # all cost gates become informational
gbrain config set spend.posture gated      # default — gates enforce

Value	Effect
gated (default)	Every cost gate enforces its limit as documented below.
tokenmax	Every cost gate prints its estimate and proceeds — informational only. Spend is still recorded to the ledger; posture removes the ceiling, not the accounting.

spend.posture is deliberately separate from search.mode=tokenmax (which governs retrieval payload size, not embedding spend). When a gate fires and search.mode=tokenmax but spend.posture is unset, the gate prints a one-line hint pointing at this switch.

Precedence: an explicit per-call cap (--max-usd N, --max-cost N) always wins over posture. tokenmax only governs the default/absent case — it never overrides a number you typed on the command line.

Off switches (off / unlimited / none)

The USD-limit knobs accept off, unlimited, or none (case-insensitive) to mean "no limit" — no more setting sentinel values like 100000.

• 0 is not "off". On sync.cost_gate_min_usd, 0 means "block on any nonzero spend" (a real choice). On the backfill caps, 0 falls back to the default.
• Internally "no limit" is the string unlimited in any printed/JSON output and "no cap" inside the budget tracker — never a raw Infinity (which would serialize to null in ledger rows).

The gates

Gate	Config key	Default	Blocks?	Off switch	tokenmax
Sync inline-embed cost gate	sync.cost_gate_min_usd	0.50	TTY prompt / non-TTY auto-defer	off (or 0 = block-on-any)	informational
Backfill 24h per-source spend cap	embed.backfill_max_usd_per_source_24h	25	refuses submission	off (0 → default)	bypassed (still ledgered)
Backfill per-job budget	embed.backfill_max_usd	10	caps the job's tracker	off (0 → default)	uncapped (still ledgered)
Backfill cooldown	embed.backfill_cooldown_min	10	skips re-submission inside window	— (latency knob, not spend)	not bypassed
reindex-code cost gate	— (preview before re-embed)	—	TTY prompt / non-TTY refuse + exit 2	--max-cost off	informational
enrich / onboard --auto	--max-usd (per-call)	—	refuse without a cap (non-TTY)	--max-usd off	runs uncapped (still ledgered)

Sync inline-embed cost gate

Fires only when sync embeds inline (federated_v2 off, or --serial without --no-embed). Under federated_v2 + parallel, embedding is deferred to capped backfill jobs and the gate is informational. The estimate prices the delta — the files this sync will actually import (fetched-first, so it sees commits the run is about to pull) — not the whole tree. A busy brain with a dirty working tree but caught-up commits estimates $0, because an attached-HEAD sync imports only the committed diff.

Behavior above the floor:

• TTY: prompts [y/N].
• Non-interactive (cron/agent): auto-defers embeds to capped backfill jobs and exits 0 — it never wedges the pipeline. The backlog drains via the jobs worker or gbrain embed --stale. Pass --yes to embed inline instead.

Output format splits on the explicit --json flag: --json emits a structured envelope; otherwise human text. Every gate message carries paste-ready knobs.

--full re-embeds the stale backlog inline (full sync sweeps it), so a --full estimate is delta + stale backlog, labeled as such.

Estimate labels

• ~N tokens (delta: changed files since last sync) — the precise estimate.
• <=N tokens (full-tree ceiling for K source(s): <reasons> …) — a conservative over-count used only when a precise delta can't be computed: a first sync, a chunker version drift (forces a full re-chunk), or git being unavailable. Unchanged files still skip via content_hash at execution, so the ceiling over-states real spend.

Notes & limits

• Pre-pull window: the gate fetches before estimating, so it prices what the run will pull. If a fetch fails (offline), it estimates against local HEAD and labels the result; the bounded residual is priced on the next run.
• Single-source gbrain sync carries the same gate as sync --all (it previously embedded inline with no preview).
• Recovery under parallel: --skip-failed / --retry-failed work under parallel sync (the failure ledger is per-source and lock-serialized) — you no longer have to drop to --serial, which is what used to arm the inline gate.

Escape hatches at a glance

# Never gate this brain on cost:
gbrain config set spend.posture tokenmax

# Widen the sync inline floor to $5:
gbrain config set sync.cost_gate_min_usd 5

# Disable the sync inline floor entirely:
gbrain config set sync.cost_gate_min_usd off

# Lift the backfill 24h spend cap:
gbrain config set embed.backfill_max_usd_per_source_24h off

# Run enrich uncapped non-interactively:
gbrain enrich --max-usd off        # or: gbrain config set spend.posture tokenmax