Governance

As your agents scale from prototype to production, governance becomes essential. Without controls, every agent with an API key effectively has a blank check.

The Blank Check Problem

Give an agent access to paid services, and you’ve given it the ability to spend without limits. Lock it down too tightly, and it can’t do its job. Most teams face this trade-off:

• No controls: Risk runaway costs from infinite loops, prompt injection, or unexpected usage patterns
• Too restrictive: Agents fail mid-task when they hit arbitrary limits or need manual approval

Sapiom provides a middle path: real-time governance that protects your budget while letting agents work autonomously.

What You Can Control

Sapiom’s governance layer lets you define rules that enforce policy in real-time:

Spend Limits Cap spending per run, agent, or time period. Stop runaway costs before they happen.

Usage Controls Limit API calls, tokens, or operations. Prevent agents from overusing specific services.

Agent Identity Name and track agents individually. See which agent did what, and when.

Activity Monitoring View transaction history and track spending as it happens.

How It Works

Every transaction through Sapiom is evaluated against your rules in real-time:

1. Agent makes a service call — Your agent requests access to a paid service
2. Rules are evaluated — Sapiom checks the request against your spend and usage limits
3. Transaction proceeds or blocks — If within limits, the transaction completes; if not, the agent receives a clear error
4. Activity is logged — Every transaction is recorded with agent identity, cost, and rule evaluation

This happens in milliseconds, adding no meaningful latency to your agent’s operations.

What You’re Governing

Governance rules apply to your agents’ use of Capabilities — the paid services Sapiom gives you access to, like verification, search, and AI models. When an agent calls a capability, that transaction is evaluated against your rules.

When to Set Up Governance

Before production: Set spend limits before deploying agents that access paid services. It’s much easier to raise limits than to explain an unexpected bill.

During development: Use per-run limits to catch infinite loops and unexpected behavior early.

At scale: Add agent-level tracking to understand which agents drive costs and identify optimization opportunities.

Next Steps

Setting Up Rules Configure spend and usage limits for your agents

Agents & Identity Name and track your agents across services

Activity View transaction history and debug agent behavior