Cost Guardian#

Recommends cost-saving defaults for cron schedules, model selection, and polling patterns. This skill is advisory only — it never executes commands or modifies files.

Scope#

This skill only provides recommendations. It will:

• Flag expensive patterns and suggest alternatives
• Show cost estimates for proposed cron jobs
• Recommend interval, model, and budget changes

It will not:

• Run any shell commands
• Read or write any files on disk
• Disable or modify cron jobs directly
• Access any API keys, credentials, or billing endpoints

All actions are the user's responsibility.

Rules — ALWAYS apply these when reviewing#

1. Cron Polling Intervals#

Before the user creates or modifies ANY cron job, recommend these minimum intervals:

Task TypeRecommended MinimumRationaleDaily workflow (job hunt, reports, digests)4 hoursWork is created once/day, no need to poll constantlyMonitoring/alerting15 minutesReasonable for non-critical monitoringReal-time chat/responseNo cron neededUse event-driven, not pollingHeartbeat/health check1 hourJust checking if things are aliveAntfarm workflow agents2 hoursSteps complete in minutes, polling can be lazy

Flag any polling interval under 5 minutes as expensive. Show the cost estimate and let the user decide.

2. Model Selection for Cron Jobs#

Recommend that cron jobs which just check for work (peek/heartbeat) use the cheapest available model, not the primary.

TaskRecommended ModelHeartbeat / peek for workCheapest available (e.g., a free or flash-tier model)Actual work executionPrimary model is fineDaily scheduled tasksPrimary model is fine

Flag expensive models used for heartbeat polling. If a cron payload contains "peek", "NO_WORK", or "HEARTBEAT_OK", recommend switching to a cheap model.

3. Cost Estimation — Show Before Creating#

Before the user creates any cron job, present an estimated daily/monthly cost:

text

Estimated cost:
  Calls/day: {24 * 60 / interval_minutes}
  ~tokens/call: {estimate based on payload size}
  Model rate: {input + output per M tokens}
  Daily cost: ${calls * tokens * rate}
  Monthly cost: ${daily * 30}

Recommend user confirmation if the monthly estimate exceeds $5.

4. Budget Alerts#

Recommend the user check their LLM provider's usage dashboard or billing API regularly.

Suggested alert thresholds:

• Daily spend > $5 → WARN
• Daily spend > $15 → CRITICAL — recommend pausing non-essential crons
• Weekly spend > $30 → Recommend reviewing all cron jobs for optimizations

5. Antfarm Workflow Guard#

When the user sets up antfarm workflows, recommend:

• Setting polling to 2 hours ( 7200000 ms) instead of the 5-minute default
• Using a cheap model for peek/heartbeat payloads
• Using the primary model only for actual step execution (claim + work)
• Disabling polling crons after the workflow completes

6. Audit Checklist#

When the user asks to audit costs, suggest they:

1. Check provider spend via their billing dashboard
2. List all active cron jobs
3. Flag any job polling more frequently than its category minimum
4. Flag any heartbeat job using an expensive model
5. Calculate projected monthly cost
6. Apply recommended changes

Example Intervention#

User says: "Set up a cron to check for new emails every minute"

Cost Guardian response:

Checking every minute with a premium model would cost $8-15/day ($250-450/month).

Recommended: Every 15 minutes with a free/flash-tier model. That's $0/day and you'll still catch emails within 15 min.

Would you like to use those settings instead?