> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.narrative.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Budget Exhausted

> The agent run spent every token its budget allowed before reaching a final answer.

**Surface:** `GET /agents/runs/{id}`, `error.type = "AgentLoopBudgetExhausted"`

## When this error occurs

Some runs carry a budget: a token allowance for the whole run, written by the platform when the
run is created. Runs started through the Conversations API do not have one — they are bounded by
`max_iterations` alone, and cannot produce this error. Runs the platform starts on your behalf,
such as a workflow's `RunConversation` task, do.

The budget covers every call to the model made by the run and by any run it starts, added up. It
is not the same as `max_tokens`, which caps a single call, nor `max_iterations`, which caps how
many rounds one run may take — a run can think and call tools many times without touching its
budget.

The check happens after an iteration finishes, not before it starts, because how many tokens an
iteration will use is not known until it has run. A run can therefore finish slightly over its
allowance — by at most one iteration's worth. The `usage` on the terminal run row records what
was actually spent.

A run that runs out of *rounds* rather than tokens reports
[Max Iterations Exceeded](https://docs.narrative.io/reference/architecture/agent-conversations/errors/max-iterations-exceeded.md)
instead.

## How to fix

* **The work genuinely needs more tokens** — raise the budget for the surface that created the
  run. For a workflow's `RunConversation` task, that is worker configuration, not something the
  workflow spec sets.
* **The agent is spending tokens without progressing** — read the conversation transcript. Long
  tool results fed back verbatim are the usual cause; so is a prompt that leaves the model
  unsure when it is finished. Narrowing the tool catalog or sharpening the system prompt costs
  fewer tokens than raising the ceiling.


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