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This guide focuses on AI agent cost attacks for production systems, with practical trade-offs for reliability, security, and cost.
Abuse is not only exfiltration — it is token bombs, recursive agent invokes, and cross-tenant cost amplification. Cap per tenant, per PR, and per run before someone pastes a 2MB log into chat.
⚡ TL;DR: Enforce input size limits, recursion depth, fan-out caps, and per-tenant token budgets with hard stops. Emit cost metrics.
AI agent cost attacks: production guidance
python
MAX_INPUT_CHARS = 100_000
MAX_DEPTH = 3
MAX_FANOUT = 5
def accept_user_input(text: str):
if len(text) > MAX_INPUT_CHARS:
raise ValueError("input_too_large")
def spawn_child(parent_depth: int):
if parent_depth >= MAX_DEPTH:
raise RuntimeError("recursion_cap")
Per-tenant caps
typescript
❌ Unlimited recursive “supervisor calls specialist calls supervisor” — that is a cost attack with extra steps.
export async function charge(tenant: string, tokens: number, redis: Redis) {
const key = `budget:${tenant}:${new Date().toISOString().slice(0, 10)}`;
const used = await redis.incrby(key, tokens);
await redis.expire(key, 86400 * 2);
if (used > TENANT_DAILY_CAP) throw new Error("tenant_budget");
}
Closing checklist
- [ ] Input size + depth + fan-out caps
- [ ] Per-tenant daily token budgets
- [ ] Metrics and alarms on cap hits
- [ ] Quotas separate from authz
- [ ] Rate-limit tool invokes
Series navigation
Day 67: Supply Chain: Model and Image Provenance · Day 69: Policy as Code for Shell and Apply Last updated September 11, 2026 Related: Day 51: Multi-Agent Roles: Planner, Implementer, Critic; Day 53: Avoiding Agent Ping-Pong; Day 95: Incident Response When the Agent Goes Wrong.Watch: 100 Days of AI on YouTube
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