RFC-0009: Cost & Resource Tracking v1.0

Status: Proposed
Created: 2026-02-01
Authors: OpenIntent Contributors
Requires: RFC-0001 (Intents)

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Abstract

This RFC defines mechanisms for tracking costs and resource usage per intent and agent, enabling budgeting, optimization, and accountability in multi-agent systems.

Motivation

Multi-agent workflows consume resources that need tracking:

• Token usage: LLM API calls consume tokens with associated costs
• API costs: External service calls may have per-request pricing
• Compute time: Processing time for resource-intensive tasks
• Budget enforcement: Prevent runaway costs in autonomous agents

Cost Record Model

{
  "id": "uuid",
  "intent_id": "uuid",
  "agent_id": "agent-research",
  "cost_type": "tokens | api_call | compute | custom",
  "amount": 1500,
  "unit": "tokens | cents | seconds | custom",
  "provider": "openai | anthropic | google | null",
  "metadata": {
    "model": "gpt-4",
    "prompt_tokens": 1200,
    "completion_tokens": 300
  },
  "recorded_at": "ISO 8601"
}

Cost Types

Type	Description	Typical Unit
tokens	LLM token consumption	tokens
api_call	External API invocation	cents
compute	Processing time	seconds
custom	User-defined resource	custom

Budget Enforcement

Intents can define budget constraints:

{
  "constraints": {
    "budget": {
      "max_total_cents": 10000,
      "max_per_agent_cents": 2000,
      "max_per_call_cents": 500,
      "alert_threshold_percent": 80
    }
  }
}

When spending approaches the threshold, the server emits a budget_alert event. When the budget is exceeded, the server can block further operations or require human approval.

Endpoints

Method	Path	Description
POST	/v1/intents/{id}/costs	Record cost
GET	/v1/intents/{id}/costs	Get costs with summary

Response Format

{
  "costs": [],
  "summary": {
    "total": 5000,
    "by_type": { "tokens": 4500, "api_call": 500 },
    "by_agent": { "agent-research": 3000, "agent-synth": 2000 }
  }
}

Example: Tracking LLM Costs

# Record token usage after an LLM call
curl -X POST http://localhost:8000/api/v1/intents/{id}/costs \
  -H "X-API-Key: agent-research-key" \
  -d '{
    "agent_id": "agent-research",
    "cost_type": "tokens",
    "amount": 1500,
    "unit": "tokens",
    "provider": "openai",
    "metadata": {
      "model": "gpt-4",
      "prompt_tokens": 1200,
      "completion_tokens": 300
    }
  }'

Cross-RFC Interactions

RFC	Interaction
RFC-0004 (Portfolios)	Aggregate cost tracking across portfolio intents
RFC-0008 (LLM Integration)	Automatic cost recording for LLM calls
RFC-0013 (Coordinators)	Coordinator guardrails can enforce budget limits