Approve AWS spending with agents—without unbounded cloud cost

Agents that manage cloud infrastructure can rack up real cost in one tool call. Paybond's aws preset gives you a reviewed starting policy: side-effecting EC2 operations are capped, read-only describe calls pass through, and default_deny: true blocks anything not registered.

Policy reference: /docs/kit/agent-policy.

• aws policy preset

  Reviewed starting YAML: capped EC2 start, read-only describe, default_deny for unknowns.

• spend verify before side effects

  paybond.instrument() authorizes operation and amount before start_instance runs.

• Auto-evidence

  cost_and_completion digests bind instance results to the Harbor intent.

• TypeScript and Python

  Same aws preset and instrument() contract in both Kit languages.

Why Paybond (not just IAM)?

IAM and SCPs control AWS principals. They do not enforce a per-agent spend limit, a per-operation permission check (capability token), or a signed completion receipt tied to a spend agreement (intent).

How it works

3-minute quickstart

Smoke the aws preset sandbox contract — no AWS credentials required for this check:

paybond login
paybond agent sandbox smoke \
  --preset aws \
  --operation aws.ec2.start_instance \
  --requested-spend-cents 5000 \
  --evidence-preset cost_and_completion \
  --result-body '{"status":"completed","cost_cents":5000,"instance_id":"i-smoke"}' \
  --format table

paybond login
paybond agent sandbox smoke \
  --preset aws \
  --operation aws.ec2.start_instance \
  --requested-spend-cents 5000 \
  --evidence-preset cost_and_completion \
  --result-body '{"status":"completed","cost_cents":5000,"instance_id":"i-smoke"}' \
  --format table

When the smoke succeeds you should see:

• ✓ Spend approved
• ✓ Tool completed
• ✓ Evidence verified (cost_and_completion)

What success looks like

Scaffold the aws preset

paybond policy init --preset aws --out paybond.policy.yaml
paybond policy presets show aws
paybond policy validate-tools --file paybond.policy.yaml --local-only

paybond policy init --preset aws --out paybond.policy.yaml
paybond policy presets show aws
paybond policy validate-tools --file paybond.policy.yaml --local-only

Optional: raise the budget when scaffolding:

paybond policy init --preset aws --max-spend 1000 --out paybond.policy.yaml

paybond policy init --preset aws --max-spend 1000 --out paybond.policy.yaml

Bundled defaults include:

Wire middleware

import { Paybond } from "@paybond/kit";

const paybond = await Paybond.open({ apiKey: process.env.PAYBOND_API_KEY! });

const instrumented = await paybond.instrument({
  policy: "aws", // or "./paybond.policy.yaml"
  tools: {
    "aws.ec2.start_instance": startInstance,
    "aws.ec2.describe_instances": describeInstances,
  },
});

import { Paybond } from "@paybond/kit";

const paybond = await Paybond.open({ apiKey: process.env.PAYBOND_API_KEY! });

const instrumented = await paybond.instrument({
  policy: "aws", // or "./paybond.policy.yaml"
  tools: {
    "aws.ec2.start_instance": startInstance,
    "aws.ec2.describe_instances": describeInstances,
  },
});

Sandbox quickstart:

paybond init --solution aws --max-spend-usd 500 --framework generic --non-interactive

paybond init --solution aws --max-spend-usd 500 --framework generic --non-interactive

Extend for your operator catalog

Add tools to the policy file and registry together — CI catches drift:

tools:
  aws.rds.start_instance:
    side_effecting: true
    max_spend_cents: 100000
    evidence_preset: cost_and_completion

Re-run paybond policy validate-tools --file paybond.policy.yaml --remote after paybond login to catch remote template head drift.

Production checklist

Works with

Ready to test?

Related guides

• Agent policy-as-code — compose domain and guardrails
• Agent-agnostic spend controls — generic tool wiring
• Agent middleware — production bind and lazy context

Developer reference: /docs/kit/agent-policy.