Developer creates custom monitoring layer to track AI agent costs and prevent runaway API bills from uncontrolled retries.

Developer struggled with AI agents consuming excessive API tokens due to over-retrying, causing unexpected cost spikes

Built a thin wrapper in front of OpenAI API that logs request context (agent, task, user, team) to track cost per call instead of aggregate usage

Implemented basic spending limits that can automatically block agents when costs exceed thresholds to prevent financial runaway scenarios

Seeks input from other developers on cost management strategies, questioning whether others rely on aggregate usage monitoring or have built custom per-agent/task tracking systems