Use four controls for paid work:
- Examine the live tool contract.
- Test representative rows.
- Measure the balance change.
- Set a workspace monthly cap.
Current commands
Deepline measures the cap in credits. The cap applies to the workspace for one billing month. It is not a run cap or session cap.
The SDK CLI does not currently have a server-enforced run cap. A budget in a
chat message is an approval limit. It cannot stop active provider calls. Use a
small pilot and the workspace monthly cap when you need an enforced limit.
Inspect the route before spending
Do not infer provider fields, limits, connection state, or prices from the provider name. First, read the live contract:
Examine these items:
- The input schema
- The pricing unit
- The credential state
- The result getters
- The documented limits
A result-priced tool can have a different cost for a miss than a request-priced or page-priced tool.
If multiple provider routes can do the job, show the routes that have different costs or quality. Approve the provider route before a full paid run. Approval for the goal does not approve the most expensive route.
Build a representative pilot
The first CSV rows are not always representative. Select a small set of easy, typical, and difficult rows. Include applicable geographies, company sizes, and input conditions.
Use the planned provider order for the pilot. Use the planned validation and extraction logic. Do not use only complete or easy rows.
Before scaling, review:
- usable values returned, not merely completed calls
- wrong-person or wrong-company matches
- misses and provider errors
- actual credits per usable value
- whether a cheaper route should run first
Stop the test if the pilot has poor coverage or incorrect identity matches. Also stop for an unexpected output structure or high cost.
Measure actual cost
Record the workspace balance before and after the pilot:
Use the balance difference to measure total Deepline credit use. A composed play can bill provider calls to child runs. Thus, a parent billing field can omit costs.
Calculate the cost for each usable row. Then, show this information to the user:
- provider or play route
- pilot rows and why they are representative
- usable results, misses, and errors
- measured credits and credits per usable result
- full row count and projected range
- workspace monthly-cap state
Get explicit approval before you scale the paid route.
Monthly cap behavior
The monthly cap limits workspace use for the billing month. A provider call can require a pre-authorization amount. Thus, Deepline can reject a call before it reaches the displayed cap.
Get explicit user approval before you remove the cap:
If credits are unavailable
Stop paid work if billing balance reports insufficient credits. Also stop if a provider call reports no billing setup or payment method. Show each recovery command exactly as the CLI gives it. Let the user decide if they want to add credits. Do not change the provider without approval.
Send a pricing or billing report
Send the feedback text first. Then, attach the agent session if it is available:
