> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.agentarea.ai/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Limits # Limits The numeric bounds on task execution, governance and the authorization graph. Every value below is the value in source; overrides are listed per limit. ## Synopsis A limit comes from one of three places, and that decides how you change it. | Source | Changed by | Scope | | ------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------- | | Policy rule | `POST /v1/policies`, or `task_policy` at task creation | Per workspace, agent, user or task, at runtime | | Environment setting | Process environment or Helm values | Per deployment, at restart | | Code constant | Editing the source and redeploying | Global | ## Fields | Category | Source | Notes | | ---------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Policy ceilings | Policy rule | Merge monotonically across four layers; a lower layer may only tighten. | | Workflow and worker settings | Environment, prefix `WORKFLOW__` | `EXECUTION_ENGINE=temporal` makes the three `TEMPORAL_*` connection settings required with no defaults. | | Access-control settings | Environment, prefix `ACCESS_CONTROL_` | See [Defaults and overrides](#defaults-and-overrides). | | Agent-loop limits | Persisted effective policy | Required at task admission; runtime code has no numeric fallback. | | Timeouts and retries | Environment or Temporal activity configuration | Per deployment. | | Context and output sizes | Code constant | Not configurable. | | Event-log bounds | Code constant | Apply to event projections only. | | Pagination caps | Code constant | Clamped server-side. | ## Values ### Policy ceilings | Limit | Default for a new workspace | Unit | | ----------------------------------- | --------------------------- | -------------------------------------- | | `budget.monthly_spend_cap_usd` | `500.00` | USD per calendar month, UTC | | `budget.run_budget_usd` | `50.00` | USD per task | | `budget.service_budget_usd` | not seeded | USD per task | | `tokens.max_tokens` | `20000000` | tokens per task | | `tokens.max_tokens_per_call` | `100000` | maximum output tokens for one LLM call | | `execution.max_model_turns` | `100` | model turns per task | | `execution.max_tool_calls_per_turn` | `10` | tool calls per model turn | | `execution.max_tool_calls_total` | `1000` | tool calls per task | ### Execution limits The effective policy must contain run budget, total and per-call token ceilings, model turns, per-turn tool calls, and total tool calls. Missing dimensions reject task execution rather than selecting a code default. The values above are seed data for a new workspace and become rows in the policy database; operators may replace the seed file and existing workspace rules are not silently overwritten. ### Guard thresholds Warning fires at the ratio; denial fires at full consumption. | Guard | Warning threshold | Phase | | -------------------- | ----------------- | -------------------- | | `CostBudgetGuard` | 0.8 | pre-LLM and pre-tool | | `ServiceBudgetGuard` | 0.8 | pre-tool | | `TokenBudgetGuard` | 0.85 | pre-LLM | ### Timeouts | Limit | Value | | ----------------------------------------------- | ---------- | | `ACTIVITY_TIMEOUT` | 5 minutes | | `LLM_CALL_TIMEOUT` | 10 minutes | | `TOOL_EXECUTION_TIMEOUT` | 35 minutes | | `DELEGATION_TIMEOUT` | 10 minutes | | `EVENT_PUBLISH_TIMEOUT` | 5 seconds | | `HEARTBEAT_TIMEOUT` | 30 seconds | | `CONTINUATION_TIMEOUT` | 24 hours | | `WORKFLOW__AGENT_VALIDATION_TIMEOUT_MINUTES` | 5 | | `WORKFLOW__AGENT_EXECUTION_TIMEOUT_HOURS` | 24 | | `WORKFLOW__DYNAMIC_ACTIVITY_TIMEOUT_MINUTES` | 30 | | `WORKFLOW__TEMPORAL_MAX_WORKFLOW_DURATION_DAYS` | 7 | | `ACCESS_CONTROL_OPENFGA_TIMEOUT_SECONDS` | 10.0 | There is no timeout on a pending human approval. ### Retries | Limit | Value | | ------------------------------ | ----- | | `DEFAULT_RETRY_ATTEMPTS` | 3 | | `LLM_RETRY_ATTEMPTS` | 3 | | `EVENT_PUBLISH_RETRY_ATTEMPTS` | 1 | LLM calls retry transient failures with backoff. Permanent failures — auth, quota, billing, an unknown model — fail fast via a non-retryable flag. ### Concurrency | Limit | Value | | ---------------------------------------------- | ----- | | `WORKFLOW__TEMPORAL_MAX_CONCURRENT_ACTIVITIES` | 10 | | `WORKFLOW__TEMPORAL_MAX_CONCURRENT_WORKFLOWS` | 5 | There is no per-workspace request rate limit, task concurrency quota, or tool call rate limit. ### Context window management | Limit | Value | | ----------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------- | | `DEFAULT_CONTEXT_WINDOW` | 128000 tokens, when the model does not declare one | | `CONTEXT_COMPACT_THRESHOLD` | 0.75 | | `CONTEXT_WARNING_THRESHOLD` | 0.60 | | `CONTEXT_RESERVE_FOR_OUTPUT` | 0.15 | | `MIN_RECENT_MESSAGES_TO_KEEP` | 6 | | `TOKENS_PER_MESSAGE_OVERHEAD` | 4 tokens | ### Output offloading | Limit | Value | | ------------------------------ | --------------- | | `TOOL_OUTPUT_OFFLOAD_CHARS` | 8000 characters | | `OUTPUT_SUMMARY_HEAD_CHARS` | 500 | | `OUTPUT_SUMMARY_TAIL_CHARS` | 200 | | `READ_OUTPUT_MAX_RETURN_CHARS` | 16000 | | `HISTORY_SEARCH_MAX_RESULTS` | 20 | ### Event-log bounds Applied to Redis and database event projections. Activities and the model still receive the original values. | Limit | Value | | ----------------------------------------- | --------------- | | Maximum string length kept inline | 2000 characters | | Base64-like string omitted at | 256 characters | | Control-character ratio treated as binary | above 0.02 | | Maximum nesting depth | 10 | | Maximum dictionary entries kept | 100 | | Maximum list items kept | 100 | Field names matching a secret pattern are replaced with `[redacted]`. Fields carrying content, command text, stdout or stderr are replaced with a size marker. ### Pagination | Endpoint area | Default | Maximum | | ----------------------------------------- | ------------ | -------------------------------------------- | | Audit logs | 50 | 100, validated and clamped again server-side | | OpenFGA bootstrap store and model listing | 100 per page | — | ## Enforcement | Limit | Enforced at | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | `monthly_spend_cap_usd` | Task creation only. A running task is not interrupted, and the check has no lock, so concurrent creation can cross it. | | `run_budget_usd` | The workflow loop, and `CostBudgetGuard` before each LLM and tool call. | | `service_budget_usd` | The workflow loop, and `ServiceBudgetGuard` before each tool call. | | `max_tokens` | `TokenBudgetGuard` before each LLM call. | | `max_tokens_per_call` | LLM call resolution; the strictest of policy, request, and model capability wins. | | `execution.max_model_turns`, `execution.max_tool_calls_per_turn`, `execution.max_tool_calls_total` | The workflow loop and tool-call budget. | | Timeouts and retries | Temporal activity options. | | Event-log bounds | Event projection, before publish and persist. | | Condition | Behaviour | | ------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | A budget ceiling absent or not greater than zero | The guard allows unconditionally. `null` is not zero. | | A required runtime policy dimension is missing | Task execution fails closed with the missing field named. | | A service budget of zero or less | Treated as unlimited. | | A guard raising an exception | Logged with a traceback; the pipeline continues. Fail-open for that dimension. | | Month-to-date spend | Summed from persisted task cost from the first of the current UTC month. Spend from a task still running is not fully counted. | | Per-call cost | Read from the provider response where supplied; otherwise estimated at a flat rate per token. | The `max_depth` parameter on the graph client's check accepts a value and defaults to 10, but it is not sent in the request. Setting it has no effect. ## Defaults and overrides Where a default exists in more than one place, the code default is authoritative for a process started without the corresponding environment variable. | Setting | Code default | `docker-compose.dev.yaml` | `docker-compose.yaml` | Helm | | ----------------------------------------- | --------------------- | ------------------------- | --------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------- | | `ACCESS_CONTROL_BACKEND` | `disabled` | `openfga` | **absent — code default applies** | `openfga` when `openfga.enabled=true`, the chart default | | `ACCESS_CONTROL_OPENFGA_AUTO_BOOTSTRAP` | `false` | `true` | absent | `true` | | `ACCESS_CONTROL_OPENFGA_AUTO_APPLY_MODEL` | `false` | `true` | absent | `true` | | `ACCESS_CONTROL_OPENFGA_STORE_NAME` | `agentarea` | `agentarea` | absent | — | | `ACCESS_CONTROL_OPENFGA_API_URL` | `http://openfga:8080` | `http://openfga:8080` | absent | — | `make up` runs `docker-compose.yaml` and `make up-dev` runs `docker-compose.dev.yaml`. On the `make up` path the graph backend is `disabled`, in which case every permission check returns allow. | Setting | Code default | Override | | ---------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | `GOVERNANCE_DEFAULT_POLICIES_PATH` | unset, uses the packaged `config/default_policies.yaml` | Path to an alternative defaults file. A missing file means new workspaces start with no rules. | | `WORKFLOW__EXECUTION_ENGINE` | `temporal` | `direct` ignores the `TEMPORAL_*` settings. | | `WORKFLOW__TEMPORAL_SERVER_URL` | `""` | Required when the engine is `temporal`; startup validation fails if missing. | | `WORKFLOW__TEMPORAL_NAMESPACE` | `""` | Required when the engine is `temporal`. | | `WORKFLOW__TEMPORAL_TASK_QUEUE` | `""` | Required when the engine is `temporal`. | Every constant listed under [Values](#values) that is not shown with an environment prefix is a code constant with no override. ## Example Tighten one task below the workspace ceiling. The effective run budget becomes the minimum of the request value and every layer above it: ```json theme={null} { "description": "Summarise the Q3 report", "task_policy": {"budget": {"run_budget_usd": "2.50"}} } ``` ## See also * [Policy rule syntax](/reference/policy-syntax) — how to write the ceilings. * [Authorization model](/reference/authorization-model) — the access-control settings in full. * [Errors](/reference/errors) — what exceeding a limit returns. * [Budgets and quotas](/concepts/governance/budgets-and-quotas) — why the monthly cap is admission-only.