Agents that act inside a fence
$0.00 Executed
Distance from the centre is the amount requested. The per-action limit is $50.00; the hard ceiling is $1,000.00.
Capability
Four parts. Each does one thing.
Hover a band, or tab through them
It takes an action request and the day's spend and hands back one of three words — allow, hold, deny — with the figure that produced it. It reads no clock, no database and no network, so every rule in it can be tested on its own.
pure function · no i/o
Approach
How an action moves
-
Request
The agent calls requestAction with a type, an amount and a recipient. Nothing has moved yet — the call asks for permission, it does not give an instruction.
-
Evaluate
The policy engine measures the amount against the $50.00 per-action limit, the $2,000.00 daily cap and the recipient allowlist. It returns a single decision together with the reason that produced it.
-
Settle
In bounds it executes at once and the result is recorded. Over the limit it holds for a human; past the $1,000.00 ceiling it is denied, and no approval can move it.
The shape of it
A fence is three decisions.
-
$50.00
Per action
The most one request may spend on its own. Over it, nothing happens until a person says so.
-
$1,000.00
Hard ceiling
The one line nobody moves. Past it the action is refused outright — no email is sent, and there is no button that lets a tired human wave it through.
-
$2,000.00
Daily cap
The running total for the day, counted per currency. Inside all three, an action executes immediately and nobody is asked anything.
Proof — live ledger
Two payments clear. The third waits for a person.
READ THE QUICKSTARTAction ledger · project demo
- Per action $50.00
- Daily cap $2,000.00
- Spent today $0.00
Waiting for the agent's first request.
- $25.00 inside the fence, runs
- $500.00 over the limit, stops
- $5,000.00 past the ceiling, refused
Policy — the fence
Four numbers, set once.
-
$50.00
Per-action limit
Over it, the action stops and a person decides.
-
$2,000.00
Daily cap
The running total for the day, counted per currency.
-
$1,000.00
Hard ceiling
The most any single action may ask for. No exceptions.
-
optional
Recipient allowlist
Leave it unset and every recipient is in scope.
A denial is not an error. The request was well formed and the call
succeeded; the answer was no. Adeia returns that answer with the figure
that produced it —
amount 500000 exceeds hard maximum 100000
— so your agent can read the reason, say it out loud to whoever asked, and
stop, instead of retrying a call that will never pass. The hard ceiling is
the one line nobody gets to move: past it the action is refused outright,
no approval request is sent, and there is no button anywhere that lets a
tired human wave it through.
Start here
Give your agent hands
Adeia is developer infrastructure for teams shipping agents — spend limits, a human approval step and an append-only audit trail, so the guardrails are not yours to build. Tell us what you are shipping.