Cost Budget Check
- 595 installs
- 67k repo stars
- Updated August 4, 2026
- ruvnet/ruflo
cost-budget-check is a ruflo agent skill that reads LLM cost-tracking spend against budget configuration and emits a four-tier utilization alert ladder for developers running long autonomous agent sessions.
About
cost-budget-check from ruvnet/ruflo reads accumulated cost-tracking spend plus budget configuration, computes utilization, and emits a measured four-tier alert ladder at 50% INFO, 75% WARNING, 90% CRITICAL, and 100% HARD_STOP. It loads cost-tracking:budget-config for the project limit, sums total_cost_usd across session-* records produced by cost-track, and supports --period today, week, month, or all. Allowed tools include Bash and claude-flow memory_retrieve, memory_list, and memory_store. Developers invoke it during lengthy autonomous runs where token spend must stay inside team limits without manual spreadsheet tracking. The skill closes the loop between cost-track session logging and enforceable budget awareness before overruns halt production agent workflows.
- Ruflo budget guardrails
- LLM spend tracking
- Autonomous session limits
- Threshold enforcement
- Cost-aware agent runs
Cost Budget Check by the numbers
- 595 all-time installs (skills.sh)
- +10 installs in the week ending Jul 26, 2026 (Skillselion tracking)
- Ranked #1,592 of 16,546 AI & Agent Building skills by installs in the Skillselion catalog
- Data as of Aug 5, 2026 (Skillselion catalog sync)
npx skills add https://github.com/ruvnet/ruflo --skill cost-budget-checkAdd your badge
Show developers this skill is listed on Skillselion. Paste this into your README.
| Installs | 595 |
|---|---|
| repo stars | ★ 67k |
| Last updated | August 4, 2026 |
| Repository | ruvnet/ruflo ↗ |
How do you check LLM agent spend against budgets?
Check LLM and agent run costs against budgets during long autonomous sessions so spend stays within team limits.
Who is it for?
Developers operating long ruflo or claude-flow agent sessions who need automated budget utilization checks against stored cost-tracking data.
Skip if: One-shot prompts with no cost-track session history or teams without configured cost-tracking:budget-config limits.
When should I use this skill?
User asks to check agent LLM spend, budget utilization, or cost alerts during an autonomous session with cost-track enabled.
What you get
Utilization percentage report and four-tier budget alerts from cost-tracking session records.
- Budget utilization report
- Tiered cost alert emissions
By the numbers
- Four-tier alert ladder at 50%, 75%, 90%, and 100% utilization
- Supports --period today, week, month, and all reporting windows
Files
Cost Budget Check
Reads cost-tracking:budget-config for the project's budget limit, sums total_cost_usd across session-* records produced by cost-track, computes utilization, and emits the measured 4-tier alert ladder (50% INFO / 75% WARNING / 90% CRITICAL / 100% HARD_STOP).
Until P2 (this skill) landed, the README documented the alert ladder but no code checked it. Now this skill is the gate.
When to use
- After every cost-track run, to surface the alert level.
- Before spawning a swarm — if utilization ≥ 90%, escalate to
/cost-optimizefirst. - Cron-friendly via
/loop 30mfor continuous monitoring.
Steps
1. Run the check:
node plugins/ruflo-cost-tracker/scripts/budget.mjs checkFilter by period: BUDGET_PERIOD=today (default all). Use BUDGET_QUIET=1 for machine-readable JSON.
2. Inspect the markdown summary — budget, spent, remaining, utilization percentage, alert level (🟢 OK · 🟡 INFO · 🟠 WARNING · 🔴 CRITICAL · 🛑 HARD_STOP), and the recommended action.
3. Set / inspect the budget:
node plugins/ruflo-cost-tracker/scripts/budget.mjs set 50.00
node plugins/ruflo-cost-tracker/scripts/budget.mjs get4. HARD_STOP path — budget.mjs check exits with code 1 when utilization ≥ 100%. Wrap critical agent spawns in a budget.mjs check && spawn … guard to fail closed.
Storage shape (cost-tracking:budget-config)
{
"budget_usd": 50.00,
"setAt": "2026-05-05T...",
"thresholds": { "info": 0.50, "warning": 0.75, "critical": 0.90, "hard_stop": 1.00 }
}Alert ladder (from REFERENCE.md, now enforced)
| Threshold | Level | Action |
|---|---|---|
| 50% | INFO 🟡 | log notification, no UX disruption |
| 75% | WARNING 🟠 | display warning, suggest /cost-optimize |
| 90% | CRITICAL 🔴 | urgent alert, recommend model downgrades |
| 100% | HARD_STOP 🛑 | halt non-essential spawns; exit code 1 |
Cross-references
cost-track(producer) — populatescost-tracking:session-*cost-report— same data source, narrative formatcost-optimize— recommended action when WARNING/CRITICAL- REFERENCE.md "Budget alert thresholds" — the documented ladder this enforces
Related skills
Setup Matt Pocock SkillsScaffold the per-repo configuration that Matt Pocock’s engineering agent skills rely on so they understand the issue tracker, triage labels, and domain documentation la495k196k
Lark AppsConnect Claude, Cursor or custom agents directly to Lark (Feishu) for messaging, document automation, approval workflows and enterprise data access.402k
CavemanSlash token usage by roughly 75% while keeping every technical detail intact when working with Claude Code, Cursor or similar agents.391k94.7k
Lark Skill MakerQuickly turn any Lark/Feishu OpenAPI call or multi-step workflow into a reusable agent skill with its own SKILL.md.386k16k
Running Claude Code Via Litellm CopilotRun Claude Code at a fraction of the cost by routing requests through LiteLLM to the GitHub Copilot Chat API.270k72
Codex PetGenerate a complete Codex Pet spritesheet and metadata from one reference image without needing an OpenAI key or Codex Pro.246k10How it compares
Use cost-budget-check after cost-track logging exists; it evaluates budgets rather than recording per-call token usage.
FAQ
What alert thresholds does cost-budget-check emit?
cost-budget-check emits a four-tier ladder at 50% INFO, 75% WARNING, 90% CRITICAL, and 100% HARD_STOP based on measured utilization against cost-tracking:budget-config limits.
Where does cost-budget-check read spend from?
cost-budget-check sums total_cost_usd across session-* records produced by cost-track in claude-flow memory, comparing totals to the project's cost-tracking:budget-config limit.