Show HN: Stop over-budget AI API calls per customer/feature (no proxy) (opens in new tab)

The no proxy approach makes sense for LLMs calls. The gap is non LLM calls.

Often times damage is done by non LLM calls -- tool calls like sending email, add records, files, placing order, etc. Budget enforcement at the LLM layer wont work for those.

built an open protocol + reference implementation, handles both any tool calls, LLM calls, or any other call: https://runcycles.io, open sourced under Apache 2.0

I built MarginDash so teams can stop over-budget AI requests before they’re sent.

  What it does:
  - Set budgets at company, customer, and feature level
  - SDK checks budget first and blocks requests that exceed limits
  - Your app still calls OpenAI/Anthropic/etc directly (no proxy/gateway)
  - Prompts and outputs go directly between your app and the AI API provider
  - MarginDash only receives usage metadata (token counts)
  - TypeScript and Python SDKs

Flow: Checks limit you set for customer/feature -> sends AI call if within that limit -> records cost

I’d love feedback on any missing enforcement scope you’d need in production

Docs: https://margindash.com/documentation