Track usage and cap spend

Agents run on your Claude or Codex subscription, and every run costs something. This page shows where to see how much you have used, how to set ceilings that stop agents before they overspend, and what happens when your plan’s usage window runs out.

Before you begin

The usage meters need an engine that is signed in (see Run Codex or Cursor instead of Claude Code). The meters and the spend readout are two switches in Settings > Automation > Board features: Claude/Codex usage meters and Spend readout. Every profile turns the meters on.

Read the usage pill

The pill in the header shows, for each signed in engine, how much of its 5-hour and 7-day windows you have used, and when the 7 day window resets. It turns amber at 70% and red at 90%.

1. In the header, click the usage pill (Harness usage). On a phone, open the ⋮ menu.

Result: a panel lists every limit your plan has (such as 5-hour limit, 7-day limit and the per model 7 day limits), each with the time left before it resets, and the board’s spend for the window and for today. If you set spend budgets, it also shows Daily budget, Weekly budget and Monthly budget with what is left of each.

A shield in place of the meters means a login has expired or expires within three days: re-authenticate in Settings > Agents.

See where the money went

1. In the usage panel, click View full stats (on a phone, Usage statistics in the ⋮ menu).

Result: Usage statistics shows total tokens and cost, tokens and cost over time (hourly to monthly), Models used, Context used per run, Avg time per phase and Most expensive tickets. The pill and the statistics cover every board on this machine.

To show each ticket’s spend on its card, turn on Price on ticket cards in Settings > Automation > Board features.

Turn on spend budgets

Spend budgets are ceilings on what agents may spend, per day, week and month. They are off by default: the ceilings still show as headroom in the usage pill, but nothing stops.

1. Open Settings > Agents > Spend budgets.
2. Tick Enforce spend budgets.
3. Set Daily budget (USD), Weekly budget (USD) and Monthly budget (USD). The defaults (400, 2000 and 6000) are a backstop against a runaway, well above a normal day. 0 turns one ceiling off.
4. Click Save changes.

Result: before each agent turn, the board checks what has been spent since the start of the day (00:00 UTC), the week (Monday) and the month. A ticket that would start past a ceiling parks instead.

Give one board its own budget

1. Click the board name at the top left, then Board settings….
2. Under Per-board overrides, pick Enforce spend budgets or one of the budgets in Add an override…, and set this board’s value.
3. Click Save.

Result: that board’s spend is checked against its own ceilings; other boards keep the global ones.

Cap one ticket

1. Open the ticket.
2. In its toolbar, click Spend limit and type the most this ticket may ever spend, in USD.

Result: the ticket’s lifetime spend is checked against it before each turn, ahead of the board’s budgets. Clearing the field (or 0) removes the limit. The limit holds only while Enforce spend budgets is on.

When a ticket reaches a budget

A budget is checked before a turn starts, so a run in progress is never cut off halfway. The ticket parks in Pending Action with Spend ceiling reached, naming the budget, what was spent and by how much it is over. To let it continue:

1. Raise the budget in Settings > Agents > Spend budgets, or raise the ticket’s Spend limit, or turn off Enforce spend budgets.
2. Move the ticket back to To Do.

Result: the agent resumes the same session. A ticket parked on a daily, weekly or monthly budget also unblocks on its own when that window rolls over.

When the agent asks for more

An agent nearing its ticket’s limit can ask you to raise it. The ticket parks with a budget card that says what it has spent and suggests a new cap.

• Click Raise to the suggested amount: the limit is set and the agent continues.
• Click Stop here: the limit stays, and the agent stops.

Wait out a usage limit

When your Claude plan’s usage window is full, the agent cannot continue until it resets. The board parks the ticket in Pending Action, saves its session, and posts Hit a Claude usage limit with the time it resumes.

Result: when the window resets, the ticket goes back to To Do by itself and continues where it stopped. Signing in as another Claude account in Settings > Agents > Claude auth resumes it sooner, on that account’s quota.

Cancel the auto resume

1. On the parked ticket, click Cancel auto-resume on the usage limit card.

Result: the ticket stays in Pending Action until you move it to To Do yourself, which resumes the saved session.

Related

• The auto-runner, for how the runner orders and retries work.
• Organize the board, for per-board overrides.
• Fix common problems, for other reasons a ticket parks.