How do I install the Loop Budget skill?

Run npx skillmds@latest add alib8b8/loop-budget in your terminal (requires Node.js), paste this page's agent-chat prompt into Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-connected agent, or download the SKILL.md file and copy it into your agent's skills directory.

What does the Loop Budget skill do?

Check token budget and run-log spend before and after a loop run. Enforces early exit when over budget or when there is no actionable work. It is listed under Finance & Business on SkillMD.

Is Loop Budget safe to use?

This skill has not completed SkillMD's automated safety review yet. Capability flags: docs only. SkillMD never runs a skill's scripts for you; review the SKILL.md before installing.

Which AI agents work with Loop Budget?

This skill is tagged as working with Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex. SKILL.md is an open format, so most agents that read a skills directory can load it too.

Is Loop Budget free to use?

Yes. Installing skills from SkillMD is free, and the skill stays under its author's original license.

Who published Loop Budget?

alib8b8 (@alib8b8) published this skill. Their other Agent Skills are listed on their SkillMD profile.

Loop Budget by alib8b8 — Agent Skill

Name: Loop Budget
Rating: 4.2 (5 reviews)
Author: alib8b8

File contents

Loop Budget Guard

Run at the start and end of every loop iteration.

Start of run

Read loop-budget.md for daily caps and kill-switch flags.
Read recent entries in loop-run-log.md (last 24h).
Sum tokens_estimate for the active pattern today.
If spend ≥ 80% of the pattern's daily cap → report-only mode (no sub-agents, no auto-fix).
If spend ≥ 100% or loop-pause-all is set → exit immediately with a one-line note in STATE.md.
If watchlist/state has no actionable items → exit in <5k tokens (do not spawn sub-agents).

End of run

Append one JSON object to loop-run-log.md:

{
  "run_id": "<ISO8601>",
  "pattern": "<pattern-id>",
  "duration_s": <number>,
  "items_found": <number>,
  "actions_taken": <number>,
  "escalations": <number>,
  "tokens_estimate": <number>,
  "outcome": "no-op | report-only | fix-proposed | escalated"
}

Rules

Never exceed max sub-agent spawns/run from loop-budget.md.
High-cadence patterns (CI Sweeper, PR Babysitter) must early-exit when nothing is actionable.
On self-throttle, append a line to loop-budget.md under Alerts This Period.

Frequently asked questions

Loop Budget