Intelligence and managed compute

Menlo separates the factory from the intelligence route. The same durable command and deterministic acceptance gates apply regardless of which configured harness writes source.

Local and bring-your-own

Local or bring-your-own execution is available without a Menlo subscription gate. The selected coding agent must already be installed and authenticated on the Mac. Discovery is bounded to known installation locations and does not execute the user’s login shell.

Credentials stay with the agent or approved Keychain integration. A recorded execution receipt names the harness, model and route actually used, any metered token total the harness reported, additional charge, and the exact gate that refused the candidate. Missing metering remains absent rather than being rewritten as zero.

Managed route

Managed inference is optional. The server provides priced estimates and caps. Use requires explicit consent, an installation-signed managed claim, sufficient append-only micro-USD balance, and a hard reservation before the constrained completion proxy can call the allowlisted provider/model route.

Balance changes are append-only. Paid or promotional credit, reservation, settlement, release, refund, dispute, and revocation are recorded as separate facts. Stripe pack purchases are an external payment boundary; the factory does not treat a browser redirect as credit until verified server evidence exists.

Bankr sits behind a narrow Menlo-controlled proxy. It is not given DeviceKeys, Apple signing identities, arbitrary shell access, Registry transaction authority, or an open forwarding endpoint.

Fail-closed availability

Configuration code existing in the repository does not make managed compute live. The route remains unavailable unless the exact provider key, model allowlist, server durability, estimates/caps, reservation behavior, webhook verification, backup/restore, and scenario matrix are operationally proven.

When managed compute is unavailable, the product may explain how to configure a local/BYO agent. It must not silently switch routes, spend balance without consent, or reinterpret a failed reservation as permission.

See current status for today’s deployment evidence.