/ship --token-cap 25M (or GSTACK_SHIP_TOKEN_CAP=25M) bounds what one /ship run spends, and
long runs hand their heavy segments to fresh-context children. The helper is
bin/gstack-ship-budget; the skill's procedure is ship/sections/budget-handoff.md.
There is no default cap: without one, /ship meters usage when it can and prints it, and
nothing else changes.
It is an admission cap, not a hard ceiling. Before every step and every dispatch batch,
check admits the work only when
used + open reservations + unknown charges + projection + tail reserve + stop overhead <= cap
Exactly at the cap is admitted; one token over is not. A parallel review batch is reserved as
one sum before any of it starts. Admitted work can still cost more than its projection, and
gstack cannot stop a host mid-turn from bash, so a run can finish above the cap by the
misprojection of work already admitted. The tail reserve (default 2M, --reserve <n>) keeps
room for the receipt steps, and the stop overhead (calibrated) keeps room to stop cleanly. Once
the run has measured a step, the tail reserve scales with its measured step cost (a --reserve
you set stays as given); the stop overhead never scales.
Capy. Read the root counter in one execute program that returns only that number:
return (await tools.thread.get({ thread_id: "this" })).cost.tokens;then
gstack-ship-budget start --record <record> --token-cap 25M --reading <n>
gstack-ship-budget check --run <id> --step 6 --next 7 --reading <n> [--prior-reading <n from your previous call>]The counter rolls up every subagent of the thread, outside voices included; Capy exposes no per-subagent counter, so other work in the same thread counts too (it only stops earlier).
Claude Code. gstack-ship-budget start --record <record> --token-cap 25M --session <id>. Without the
session id, start --meter claude prints a nonce: echo it once, then rerun with --nonce <value>.
The helper reads the session journal, its subagent journals and the journals of headless
children it launched; you never pass --reading.
Anywhere else. --meter estimate projects with the calibration and prints meter=estimate.
With a cap set and no readable meter, start refuses
(BUDGET_METER_UNAVAILABLE).
BUDGET: used=<n> reserved=<n> unknown=<n> admission_cap=<n|none> tail=<n> unit=<u> meter=<m> epoch=<n> call=<n|unknown> call_floor=<n> above_floor=<n|unknown> next=<id> projected=<n> calibration=step:<f|prior>,dispatch:<f|prior> verdict=continue|delegate|stop
| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
used |
Metered usage since start (all epochs), or settled estimates under meter=estimate |
reserved |
Open reservations: admitted steps, started dispatches, and each open child's sub-cap counted as max(sub_cap, child_used), never both |
unknown |
Charges the meter cannot see (an external-CLI outside voice on Claude Code), counted at their reservation |
admission_cap |
The cap, or none |
tail |
Tail reserve (scaled by the step factor once measured) plus stop overhead, held back from every admission |
unit, meter, epoch |
The meter contract: capy-tokens (root counter), claude-usage-tokens (journal usage), estimate-tokens; a meter change opens a new epoch |
call |
The per-call charge: two Capy readings in consecutive calls, or the last Claude Code call's usage |
call_floor, above_floor |
The host's per-call floor (see Delegation) and the charge above it, max(0, call − floor); the delegate rule compares above_floor |
next, projected |
What the check was for and its projection: the prior times the run's factor for that kind |
calibration |
The run's step and dispatch factors (see Calibration), or prior before the first measurement |
verdict |
continue (exit 0, prints RESERVATION: under a cap), delegate (exit 0), stop (exit 3) |
Any exit other than 0 means the next step does not start. Exit 2 is a usage or validation error on stderr with the code, the value and the repair. GSTACK_RESULT appears only on a stop, an incomplete close and a child's return; /ship's real terminal line stays Step 22's.
Under a cap, gstack-review-log --start refuses a dispatch without an unspent, one-shot
reservation (BUDGET_CHECK_SKIPPED):
gstack-ship-budget check --run <id> --step 9 --next dispatch:specialist,red-team --reading <n>
gstack-review-log --start review --reservation <id>Each reader is priced at max(its projection, the run's measured mean for that role over settled
dispatches). When the whole batch does not fit, check admits the largest prefix that does and
prints ADMIT: k of n (remaining=<roles>): dispatch those k, then re-check the remaining roles
once they settle. Only a batch whose first reader does not fit stops, and close flags remaining
roles no later check requested (DROPPED:, status=incomplete until the owner accepts).
Roles are review-depth's: specialist, red-team, adversarial-native, outside-voice,
fix-check. --finish <token> is the pass's completion receipt: it settles that reservation and
every other dispatch reservation started in the same step, so reviewers admitted one at a time
do not stay reserved. Name a reviewer that came back in your next check
(check ... --returned <id>[,<id>...]), or, when other work comes first, settle --reservation <id> --reading <n> as it returns so its cost is measured alone. A check that moves to the next step
settles every dispatch a reviewer started in the step before.
close audits after the fact: each review-log row of the run with no reservation gets one
BUDGET_CHECK_SKIPPED line and the run ends status=incomplete for the owner to accept
(close --approved-by <who> --words "<their words>"); a reservation is never created after the fact.
The delegate rule measures context above the host's per-call floor: what one call costs in a
fresh session with the ship skill loaded, before any /ship work. The floor is call_floor per
unit in lib/ship-budget-calibration.json (150k on Capy, where a fresh thread's calls cost
150–230k; 40k on Claude Code; 0 for the estimate meter, whose charge is always unknown), or
start --call-floor <n>, which the ledger records and every child inherits. At start, 100k or
more above the floor delegates the whole /ship. Before Step 7 and before Step 12, 150k or more
above the floor (or an unknown charge) delegates the next segment (7–11.5, 12–22). The BUDGET
line prints call, call_floor and above_floor, so each verdict can be checked:
-
gstack-ship-budget handoff --run <id> --from 12 --to 22 --base origin/<base> --reading <n>writes a brief (mode 0600, under the run directory) with the pins (HEAD, merge base, working tree, reviewed tree), the record with its six headings and start tokens, the decisions in scope with the owner's words, the decision trail, the budget and the return contract. It reserves the child's sub-cap: min(cap − used − reserved − unknown − the calibrated tail reserve and stop overhead, the segment estimate), or--sub-cap. A child handing off reserves its whole remaining sub-cap instead (cap − used − reserved − unknown − its stop overhead). -
The child is a Capy subagent on the shared machine, or on Claude Code
gstack-ship-budget launch --in <brief>: a backgroundclaude -p(resolved through lib/claude-bin.ts) with explicit permission flags and the return file named. -
The child runs
verify-handofffirst; a moved pin refuses (HANDOFF_PIN_MOVED). It admits against its sub-cap with child_used = reading − reading at handoff and is the only writer of the record. The context rule never stops a child. When it fires at one of the child's boundaries:- once the child has completed a step since
verify-handoff,verdict=delegatehands its remaining steps (the next step through the end of its segment) to a fresh grandchild through these same four steps. The chain depth (1 for a child, 2 for a grandchild, at most 3) is recorded in the brief, the handoff and the new ledger; - before its first completed step, at depth 3, or when the next step is past its segment,
verdict=continuewith oneCONTEXT_HIGH:line (call, floor, threshold, depth, reason).
The admission cap still stops a child (
reason=budget_exhausted). It reconciles any grandchild, then ends withreturn(at most 40 lines).returnreportsstatus=incompletewhile one of the child's own handoffs is unreconciled (UNRECONCILED:) or an ADMIT remainder was never re-checked (DROPPED:), so a delegated segment cannot drop readers or leave a grandchild writing after the parent moves on. - once the child has completed a step since
-
gstack-ship-budget reconcile --run <id> --return <file> --reading <n>; idempotent per handoff hash, so a duplicate return charges nothing twice. A refused, incomplete or interrupted child exits 3: regenerate the handoff or stop. Up a chain each token is charged once: the Capy counter already includes the whole subtree, a sessionlaunchstarts joins the Claude Code meter of every ancestor, and undermeter=estimatea child's returnedusedcarries its grandchild's.
--delegate never turns delegate into stop for a parent on a host without children; a child
continues with a CONTEXT_HIGH: note instead.
A stop prints
STOP: reason=budget_exhausted spent=<n> reserved=<n> unknown=<n> admission_cap=<n> next=<id> projected=<n>
RECOVER: /ship --resume <record> --token-cap <used + reserved + unknown + projected tail>
GSTACK_RESULT: skill=ship status=incomplete run=<dir>
Raising the cap is the owner's call; the resume journals who raised it and their words:
gstack-ship-budget resume --record <record> --token-cap <n> --approved-by Garry --words "raise it to finish" --reading <n>Every command takes --run or --record; runs are never found by branch or directory, and a
/ship without --resume or --continue always starts a new run. The ledger and record are
mirrored to a private Drive checkpoint (GSTACK_SHIP_BUDGET_CHECKPOINT_DIR, else the
project-user Drive folder on Capy) bound to the run id and their hashes, so after a machine
change resume --run <id> restores both. A corrupt ledger
(BUDGET_LEDGER_INVALID) is rebuilt from the
record's block with --rebuild-from-record; open reservations are then charged as unknown.
lib/ship-budget-calibration.json holds per-meter constants (per call, per dispatch, stop
overhead, calls and dispatches per step) fitted from metered runs: each constant is the
largest observation times 1.5, rounded up to 10,000 tokens. The leave-one-out test
(test/ship-budget-calibration.test.ts) covers the per-call constant only, the one observed
across three runs; per-dispatch has two observations and stop overhead one. Only the Capy
meter has observations; the Claude Code and estimate units are seeded from it until a
Claude-metered /ship completes. Each unit's call_floor is calibrated separately, with its
evidence in call_floor_why; a floor is the largest 10,000 multiple at or below its smallest
observed fresh call.
These constants are the prior. Each settled step or dispatch is measured on the next fresh reading (a step from its check's reading to the next one; dispatches settled together as one group, split by role), and prints
DRIFT: id=<reservation> kind=step|dispatch next=<id> projected=<n> actual=<n> ratio=<actual/projected>
From then on the run projects steps and dispatches with its own factor: the largest
actual/prior ratio among its last three measurements of that kind, times 1.5. The step factor
also scales the default tail reserve. Dispatches keep the prior until the first
dispatch is measured, so under a tight cap admit one reviewer first and let it calibrate the rest.
close prints BUDGET_DRIFT: with the run's projected and actual totals per kind. The estimate
meter has no readings, so it always projects at the prior.
A lane's --spend-cap (USD) bounds paid gates and evals through lib/spend-ledger.ts; --token-cap
bounds the /ship run's model tokens through its own ledger. They are independent: set both
when a lane runs paid gates inside /ship, and neither converts into the other.
Savings count completed ships only. Preregister the comparison with /eval-plan (arms, bars,
stop rules) before claiming a saving from the cap or from delegation.
BUDGET_CAP_REACHED · BUDGET_READING_MISSING · BUDGET_READING_REJECTED · BUDGET_METER_UNAVAILABLE · BUDGET_LEDGER_INVALID · BUDGET_CHECK_SKIPPED · HANDOFF_PIN_MOVED