agent-meter: Budget Enforcement for the Agent Economy

Elevator Pitch

Agents are getting wallets, API keys, and autonomy — but nobody is metering them. agent-meter is an open-source usage metering layer that gives every agent a budget and every API a kill switch. Three lines of middleware. No code changes in your handlers.

Why This Matters

The agent economy has an accountability gap. Agents can call APIs, spend money, and consume resources — but there’s no standard way to track, limit, or bill for that usage. Today’s solutions are either “no limits” (dangerous) or “hard-coded rate limits” (one-size-fits-all). Neither works when agents have different trust tiers, budgets, and consumption patterns.

agent-meter fills this gap with:

• Per-agent metering — Every request attributed to a specific agent identity
• Budget enforcement via rate limits — Agents that exceed their budget get 429’d, not silently throttled
• Real-time visibility — A live dashboard shows exactly who is consuming what, right now
• Conversational access via MCP — Agents can query their own usage data through natural language