Reserve subscription quota for important work

[eduanb]

Problem

T3 Code now shows provider quota and even-pace markers, but those are informational. Sometimes I want to use a subscription window for low-priority work while keeping a small reserve in case something urgent comes up. If I use the whole 5-hour or weekly allowance on background work, I can be blocked when I need to do actual work.

This is similar to a phone's mobile-data limit: set a limit that protects a reserve, then explicitly choose to go past it when needed.

Proposal

Let users set a reserve threshold for each subscription account and usage window, for example:

• Keep 10% of the 5-hour/session allowance.
• Keep 20% of the weekly allowance.

When a window reaches its reserve, T3 should pause starting additional turns on that account and explain that the reserve is being protected. In the affected thread, provide a clear action such as Use reserved quota so I can deliberately spend the remaining allowance for this thread when the work is important.

The reserve should be configurable independently per account and per provider-reported window. A setting of 0% would disable the guardrail for that window.

Example

I set a 10% reserve on my 5-hour allowance. I use the account for low-priority cleanup until only 10% remains. T3 pauses the next turn and tells me the 5-hour window is at the reserve. If an urgent fix comes up, I choose Use reserved quota in that thread and continue knowingly.

Questions / considerations

• Should the override apply to one turn, the current thread until reset, or ask each time?
• A turn already running when the reserve is reached may consume more quota before T3 can check again; the guardrail should make this clear and avoid promising an exact hard cap where provider usage data is delayed or unavailable.
• The setting should be scoped to each provider account and quota window, since the 5-hour and weekly budgets serve different purposes.

Would a per-account, per-window reserve with an explicit thread-level override fit the existing Usage → Limits workflow?