FlockTabHow it works
The money path is the product. If this page is longer than five minutes, we failed.
Without / with
Same worker, two runtimes. Left: the agent has the ElevenLabs key and keeps billing. Right: it holds ft_live_ plus an unlock secret; FlockTab reserves, then kills at cap. v1's live proxy is OpenAI-compatible chat.
Provider key in the agent. Close the process, not the spend.
import os
from elevenlabs.client import ElevenLabs
client = ElevenLabs(api_key=os.environ["ELEVEN_API_KEY"])
audio = client.text_to_speech.convert(
voice_id="JBFqnCBsd6RMkjVDRZzb",
text="The overnight batch finished.",
model_id="eleven_multilingual_v2",
)ft_live_ authenticates the tab. x-flocktab-unlock unwraps BYOK.
import os
from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI(
base_url="https://proxy.flocktab.com/v1",
api_key=os.environ["FLOCKTAB_KEY"],
default_headers={
"x-flocktab-unlock": os.environ["FLOCKTAB_UNLOCK"],
},
)
chat = client.chat.completions.create(
model="gpt-4o-mini",
messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Summarize the batch."}],
max_tokens=128,
)Name the agent. Set a hard cap and a window. Issue ft_live_... The tab is open.
Same OpenAI client. base_url = https://proxy.flocktab.com/v1. Bearer ft_live_… plus x-flocktab-unlock. BLOCKED never reaches the provider.
FlockTab estimates cents from model and max_tokens, then holds that against the tab. Fail closed if the ledger is down.
Policy order: tab state, cap, velocity, models, irreversible allowlist, tool caps. BLOCKED never reaches the provider.
After the response, unused reserve is released. Commit uses provider usage tokens, not the estimate. One line per decision.
At cap, or by hand, the tab closes. Next call: 402 tab_closed, x-flocktab-reason: cap.day. Reopen on the window, manually, or never.