# NousResearch/hermes-agent · Agent cost controls and budget cap features

## Open now

- 3 issues, 1 PR open on GitHub.
- #21172: \[Feature\]: First-class Loop Contract — declarative budget / stop / refresh / scope for cron-backed agent loops
- #23419: Cron jobs and agent dispatches burn provider credits without user consent or budget cap
- #26382: \[Feature\]: Configurable daily/monthly hard budget cap for unattended operation
- PR #26562: feat(agent): add configurable budget guard
- _Broad area: open items may be separate problems._

These issues and PRs concern unattended agent operations consuming provider credits without user awareness or limits. They request and implement configurable budget caps, spending visibility, and declarative stop conditions for cron-driven agent loops.

## TL;DR

- 5 member(s): 3 open issue(s), 1 closed issue(s), 1 open PR(s), 0 merged PR(s), 0 PR(s) closed without merging.
- No fix has been merged to main; one or more PRs were attempted (see below).
- **Recommended:** review the prior/competing PR(s) below. A fix was attempted but not merged; your case may extend or revive that work.

## Maintainer resolution verdict

- Internal-tracker verdict over this cluster's issue members: `unresolved`. This is distinct from the fix status above. Weigh it yourself.

## How this cluster was grouped

- Link evidence (`STRUCTURAL_PARTIAL`): some members are connected by structural evidence (shared changed files, or a closing/superseded reference); the rest are joined by an automated relevance judgement over their text.
- Members outside that structural core may belong to a different underlying problem.
- Pairwise link density `0.21`: the share of member pairs that carry a link, counting a structural link in full and a relevance-only link at 0.36. `1.00` means every pair is linked.

## Open related issues

- #21172: \[Feature\]: First-class Loop Contract — declarative budget / stop / refresh / scope for cron-backed agent loops
- #23419: Cron jobs and agent dispatches burn provider credits without user consent or budget cap
- #26382: \[Feature\]: Configurable daily/monthly hard budget cap for unattended operation

## Closed / duplicate issues

- #32524: Gateway silently uses cloud API keys from environment with no warning, no cost visibility, no spending cap

## Prior & competing PRs

- **#26562: feat(agent): add configurable budget guard**. open
  - maintainer direction: category `uncategorized`; implication `needs_llm`
  - files: `agent/budget_guard.py`, `run_agent.py`, `tests/agent/test_budget_guard.py`

## Fix status

- No merged fix on record.
- Subsystem: `agent`