Agent Spending Limits

End-of-lesson check

15 questions · take it digitally for instant feedback at tendril.neural-forge.io/learn/quiz/end-builders-agentic-agent-budget

1. Which sentence best captures the main idea of 'Agent Spending Limits'?

   1. If an agent has access to your money, it needs strict spending limits — daily, weekly, per-purchase..
   2. Tools and goals are unnecessary for agent design
   3. Agents and chatbots are the same thing in every way
   4. Agents should always run without limits or oversight

2. Which of the following is part of 'A typical limit setup'?

   1. Use the most expensive model regardless of fit
   2. Per-transaction max 50 dollars. Daily max 200 dollars. Monthly max 1000 dollars. Anything over: requires your approval.
   3. Avoid taking any actions in the world
   4. Ignore cost when scaling

3. Which of the following is part of 'Three spending controls'?

   1. Per-transaction max
   2. Disable safety checks for speed
   3. Never log what the agent did
   4. Hide tool calls from the operator

4. Which of the following is part of 'Review date'?

   1. Never log what the agent did
   2. Reviewed in 2026. Treat fast-changing product names, prices, availability, and policy details as examples to verify before use.
   3. Disable safety checks for speed
   4. Use the most expensive model regardless of fit

5. What is 'rate limit' in this context?

   1. A core concept covered in Agent Spending Limits
   2. A way to disable the agent's tools
   3. A trick to bypass approvals
   4. A reason to skip all logging

6. What is 'spending cap' in this context?

   1. A core concept covered in Agent Spending Limits
   2. A way to disable the agent's tools
   3. A reason to skip all logging
   4. A trick to bypass approvals

7. What is 'runaway agent' in this context?

   1. A reason to skip all logging
   2. A way to disable the agent's tools
   3. A trick to bypass approvals
   4. A core concept covered in Agent Spending Limits

8. Which is the clearest reason to set a per-task dollar cap on an agent?

   1. It removes the need for evals
   2. It makes responses sound friendlier
   3. It improves the model's reasoning
   4. It prevents one runaway run from eating an entire month's budget

9. What is the difference between an agent's memory and its context window?

   1. Context lasts forever; memory is cleared every minute
   2. Memory is faster but less accurate than context
   3. Context is what the model sees right now; memory persists across runs
   4. Nothing — they are the same thing

10. Which signal best tells you an agent is stuck in a runaway loop?

    1. It keeps repeating the same tool call with no new progress
    2. It asks one clarifying question
    3. It finishes the task in one step
    4. It returns a short summary and stops

11. Which is the clearest sign an 'agent' is really just a chatbot in disguise?

    1. It only produces text and never takes actions
    2. It can call a search tool
    3. It can remember last week's conversation
    4. It uses a system prompt

12. What should an agent's trace let you do after a run?

    1. Hide what the agent did from the user
    2. Make the agent run faster next time automatically
    3. Reconstruct each step, decision, and tool call so you can debug or audit
    4. Replace the need for any tests

13. What is the best response when an agent suggests an action you do not understand?

    1. Ask the agent to explain the action and its expected effect before approving
    2. Reject everything and stop using the agent
    3. Run it twice to be sure
    4. Approve it to keep things moving

14. Why does a multi-agent system sometimes outperform a single agent on complex jobs?

    1. Specialized roles can divide work and check each other
    2. More agents always means more accuracy
    3. Multiple agents always cost less
    4. Single agents cannot use tools

15. Why are clear success criteria critical when building an agent?

    1. They are required by law
    2. They reduce the number of tokens used
    3. Without them you cannot tell whether the agent worked or guess
    4. They make the agent sound smarter