Thresholds
Each threshold is a percentage of the engagement's budget plus any approved top-ups, with one of three actions:
| Action | Default | What happens | Who hears |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alert | 75% | An email: budget, spent, remaining and when it runs out at the current pace. | The engagement owner |
| Require approval Growth | 100% | A top-up request opens. With a hard gate, new CLI sessions are refused until a top-up is approved. | The owner, then a Finance owner above the owner's limit |
| Stop | 110% | An email telling everyone on the engagement to stop using AI tools on it until a top-up is approved. | The owner, contributors and every Finance owner |
Each threshold fires once. After a top-up is approved, any threshold whose new level is above current spend is armed again. Changing the budget with Change budget doesn't re-arm thresholds already reached; edit them if you want them to fire again.
- Firm defaults for new engagements are under Settings → Firm and policy → Default thresholds for new engagements. Org admins and Finance owners can change them. Existing engagements keep their own.
- One engagement: open it, find Thresholds and select Edit. Each engagement can have up to 10 thresholds between 1% and 500%. Each shows as Armed or Reached.
Starter plan: a "Require approval" threshold sends an alert instead of opening a request automatically. Anyone on the engagement can still use Request top-up, and an approved top-up releases a stop on every plan.
Soft and hard gates
The gate decides what happens once an engagement is over its limit and waiting for a decision. You set it under At the limit, for the firm and for each engagement.
| Gate | At the limit | Default for |
|---|---|---|
| Soft: alert and continue | Work continues, and the owner is asked to approve a top-up. The Allcora CLI starts sessions with a warning. | Design partner and beta firms |
| Hard: stop until approved | The Allcora CLI refuses new sessions for the engagement until a top-up is approved; a rejected request keeps them refused. Contributors are emailed to pause AI work. | Firms registered as customers |
Org admins and Finance owners change the firm default. An engagement's owner can change the gate for that engagement.
What a stop covers today. A hard gate is enforced through the Allcora CLI: new allcora run sessions are refused, and sessions already running carry on. Requests sent directly to a vendor API, a gateway or OpenRouter are tracked and counted but not blocked. Alerts, approvals and stop notices still reach the right people whichever tool is used.
Approval requests
A request opens automatically at a "Require approval" threshold, suggesting the larger of 20% of the original budget and the forecast overrun. Anyone on an engagement, apart from Viewers, can also raise one with Request top-up, giving the reason more is needed. Each engagement has one open request at a time; if one is already open, a new request isn't created, so follow up the open one with its approver.
Who decides
- The engagement owner decides first. If the owner raised the request, their step is approved automatically.
- Finance confirms anything above the owner's limit. The request goes to one Finance owner, the longest-standing, and any Finance owner or Org admin can decide it under Approvals. By default the owner can approve up to 500 in the firm's reporting currency or 20% of the original budget, whichever is lower; for token budgets only the 20% applies. Change this under Settings → Firm and policy, or give an Engagement owner a Personal approval limit amount under People → Edit. The firm's percentage still applies, whichever is lower.
Org admins and Finance owners can decide at any step. An approver can approve less than was asked, but not more. A rejection needs a note, which the requester sees.
Deciding from email
Each approver gets an email from approvals@allcora.ai: "Approve amount more AI budget for engagement?". Review and decide opens a signed page where they can decide without signing in. The link is personal to that approver, works once and expires after 72 hours. Anyone holding the email can use it, so don't forward approval emails. After that, decide in Allcora under Approvals, where requests waiting on you are marked Waiting for you.
When a request is decided, the requester and the owner are told. An approved top-up adds to the budget and releases the gate, so work can continue.
Escalation
A request still waiting after 4 hours is sent once to every Finance owner and Org admin, within the following hour. Change the time, from 1 to 168 hours, with Escalate after (hours) under Settings → Firm and policy.
How notices reach you
Under Settings → My notifications, each person chooses whether alerts arrive As they happen or in One daily digest, sent at 07:00 UTC. Approval requests, stop notices, pause notices, escalations and source alerts always arrive straight away, whichever you choose. Unticking Email stops Allcora's budget and approval email to you, urgent notices included, so leave it on if you approve top-ups.
Slack
An Org admin can connect one Slack channel under Settings → Slack with an incoming webhook. Alerts, stops, approval requests, decisions and escalations are posted there. The Review in Allcora button in Slack opens Allcora, where you sign in to decide; the sign-in-free approval link is sent by email only.
Last reviewed 29 October 2026, Allcora platform version 15.