Setting Spending Limits and Approvals for AI Agents
Learn how AgentWallet combines hard per-transaction, daily, and monthly limits with a human-in-the-loop approval policy to keep AI agent spending safe.
AgentWallet controls agent spending two ways at once. Hard limits set per-transaction, daily, and monthly caps that block any action that would exceed them. A soft approval policy lets in-limit actions proceed only after a human reviews and approves them, keeping a person in the loop for anything sensitive.
Hard limits: the caps that cannot be crossed
Per-agent policy sets hard spending limits across three windows: per-transaction, per-day, and per-month. An action that would push the agent past any of these is blocked outright. These caps are terminal, meaning no approval can override them.
Soft approvals: keeping a human in the loop
Under the hard caps sits a soft approval policy. When an action is within the hard limits but crosses the approval policy, AgentWallet does not execute it. Instead it creates an approval request. A human reviews the request and, only when they click approve, the action runs and moves money server-side.
- The agent attempts an action.
- AgentWallet checks it against the hard limits; if over, it is blocked.
- If within limits but over policy, an approval request is created.
- A human approves, and only that click moves the money.
Enforced atomically under load
Velocity and balance are enforced atomically under a per-agent lock, so bursts of concurrent agent activity cannot slip past a cap. The number you set is the number that holds.
Frequently asked questions
- Can an approval override a hard limit?
- No. Hard limits are terminal. Approvals only apply to actions that are within the hard limits but cross the soft approval policy.
- Who can approve an agent's action?
- A human reviewer in the dashboard. The money only moves at the moment they click approve.
- What spending windows can I cap?
- Per-transaction, daily, and monthly limits, each enforced independently.
Sources
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