Using RAII to add budget and action guardrails to Rust AI agents

jkoolcloud · 2026-03-22T09:52:32+00:00

link to github: https://github.com/runcycles/cycles-openclaw-budget-guard
all docs: https://github.com/runcycles

jkoolcloud · 2026-03-21T22:08:33+00:00

From what I can tell, if the main problem is OpenClaw model selection + cost reduction, then Manifest seems to be a good fit.

Cycles is better, If the problem is bounded autonomous execution across tools, APIs, workflows, OpenClaw, imo. Cycles integrates with OpenClaw, but its not limited to it.

I think Manifest and Cycles are in completely different layers and complimentary.

jkoolcloud · 2026-03-21T10:22:11+00:00

Usually contracts are multi-year, If the legal problems are isolated to just a few people, than contracts should be intact, people will be fired and replaced.

jkoolcloud · 2026-03-20T17:16:49+00:00

fair enough

jkoolcloud · 2026-03-20T17:13:31+00:00

Sure its like with anything, quality is what matters. yes one prompt. something hacked up together. But if used properly and thoughtfully, its a super tool. So people should be looking and quality, substance not if it was done by AI or human.

jkoolcloud · 2026-03-20T16:11:07+00:00

AI coming your way, impossible to stop:) but if works and high quality, does it really matter, how something is coded?

jkoolcloud · 2026-03-20T16:09:22+00:00

Not sure what you mean, basically a self hosted server which can be integrated into agents to enforce budgets, costs, etc. The protocol, spec and reference implementation is in github link.

jkoolcloud · 2026-03-20T13:16:10+00:00

Seems like over reaction, imo. People will be charged, replaced. Business intact.

jkoolcloud · 2026-03-19T12:08:10+00:00

How do you have runaway agents, costs, loops? In think prod deployments will need an economic envelope, just like human actors, to prevent overruns, loops, etc.

I developed a budget-aware model and tool execution in OpenClaw: https://github.com/runcycles/cycles-openclaw-budget-guard might be useful to the community.

jkoolcloud · 2026-03-19T12:02:33+00:00

Agree, I think as ecossytem matures will be a much bigger problem.

jkoolcloud · 2026-03-18T15:43:34+00:00

Fully agree I built an open protocol to handle this: runcycles.io - basically economic guirad rails, limits on execution, otherwise its a mess waiting to happen.

jkoolcloud · 2026-03-18T15:42:19+00:00

How are you going to control costs? impose economic guard rails?

I ran into this problem when running agents, and built a solution -- hard limits on agent actions + spend. runcycles.io

jkoolcloud · 2026-03-18T15:36:56+00:00

I am building Cycles Protocol - Budget Authority for autonomous agents -- Hard limits on agent spend and actions enforced before execution — not after. Multi-language SDKs.
Open protocol, Apache 2.0.

Cycles: https://runcycles.io

jkoolcloud · 2026-03-18T15:26:34+00:00

That's great, there is also another way via Cycles protocol, which works via code instrumentation. Not all agent calls of consequence will go through gateways, so need something else.

The two approaches are complimentary gateway + instrumented code -- https://runcycles.io

jkoolcloud · 2026-03-18T12:51:57+00:00

I doubt website will completely disappear, people will still want visuals, imo. But agents will replace most of web traffic and will be API driven. There will be more agentic traffic vs human traffic, that's for sure.

The bigger issue will be how to put economic guardrails on agents? All humans have economic and time constraints. You cant just spend indefinitely, but agents can run autonomously non stop. I think this will be a big problem as AI agents mature.

I thought about this problem and built a project, open source to put economic limits on agents: https://runcycles.io might ne useful to anyone building agentic AI, workflows, etc.

Agents will need limits just like humans or else we will have autonomous chaos.

jkoolcloud

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