argus-request-spend

name	argus-request-spend
description	REQUIRED before any external money spend (Stripe charges, paid API calls, SaaS provisioning, NIM credits, anything that costs real dollars). Argus's financial control plane gates the spend through policy + human approval. Use this for every spend, no matter how small — the policy decides whether it auto-approves or escalates.
trigger	Use this skill whenever you are about to call a tool that will spend money — Stripe Skills, paid API endpoints, NVIDIA NIM inference, SaaS provisioning, etc. ALWAYS request spend approval first.

Argus Request Spend

What this is

You (the agent) live inside an enterprise where every dollar you spend is metered, audited, and gated by Argus — the financial control plane. Before any spend, you MUST declare it to Argus and wait for the verdict. This is non-negotiable: spending without declaring is a runaway-cost incident.

The contract

Before any tool call that costs money, declare it to the Argus endpoint. No authentication is needed — Argus listens locally on port 9120:

curl -s \
  -H "content-type: application/json" \
  -X POST http://127.0.0.1:9120/api/plugins/argus/sim/spend \
  -d '{
    "job_id":         "<the job this spend belongs to>",
    "cost_center_id": "<one of: api_calls, saas, services, default>",
    "projected_usd":  <the dollar amount, e.g. 5.00>,
    "ref":            "<a short, human-readable label for this spend>",
    "session_id":     "<your task_id / session_id>"
  }'

Use the terminal tool to execute that curl. The response is JSON with a result field that tells you what happened:

Response	What it means	What you do
{"result":{"action":"allow"}}	Argus auto-approved or a human approved	Proceed with the spend tool. The money is committed.
{"result":{"action":"block","message":"Argus blocked spend (rejected): <reason>"}}	A human rejected, or the spend timed out	Do NOT spend. Either: pick a smaller projected_usd, switch to a cheaper alternative, or report back to the user that the spend was blocked.

The endpoint blocks (waits) when human approval is needed. That's expected — sometimes for many seconds while a human clicks Approve. Don't time out; let the response come back.

Cost centers

Use the right cost_center_id for what you're buying:

• api_calls — pay-per-call APIs. Tight thresholds: $0.50 auto, $5 manager, anything bigger → finance.
• saas — SaaS provisioning (databases, hosting, subscriptions). No auto-approve — all spends need at least manager approval.
• services — one-off services. Includes NVIDIA NIM inference credits, third-party tools, etc.
• default — fallback when nothing else fits.

Example: buying API calls

You decide to make a paid API call costing about $0.02:

curl -s \
  -H "content-type: application/json" \
  -X POST http://127.0.0.1:9120/api/plugins/argus/sim/spend \
  -d '{"job_id":"api-batch","cost_center_id":"api_calls",
       "projected_usd":0.02,"ref":"openrouter_call_1",
       "session_id":"'"$HERMES_TASK_ID"'"}'

Response: {"result":{"action":"allow"}}. Now you can call the API.

Example: rejected, then retry

You want to provision a $79 Postgres tier:

# First attempt
{"result":{"action":"block","message":"Argus blocked spend (rejected): finance_tier"}}

Argus blocked you. Don't retry the exact same thing. Either:

• Pick a cheaper plan (e.g. $29 Postgres mini-tier) and retry:

  -d '{"job_id":"mermelada-commission-001","cost_center_id":"saas",
       "projected_usd":29.0,"ref":"postgres_mini","session_id":"..."}'

• Or stop and tell the user: "Postgres provisioning at $79 was rejected. Would you like me to try a cheaper tier?"

Why this exists

Argus is the layer that makes you trustworthy. Without it, you're a liability — even a well-intentioned agent can rack up thousands in spend overnight. With it, every spend is auditable, approvable, and reversible. Use this skill every time. No exceptions.