I'm Patrick Hughes. I build small AI tools for developers shipping agents into the real world. AgentGuard is the flagship: budget caps, loop detection, timeouts, and kill switches before your agent burns money at 2 AM.
$ pip install agentguard47Observed package downloads from PyPI, updated hourly. Counts include mirror noise filtered out where the upstream supports it. Downloads are a usage signal, not an adoption proof. A conservative floor is shown when every upstream is unavailable.
The bet: a useful software company can be one human, a stack of tools, and agents doing the boring work.
Most agent tools tell you what happened after the run. AgentGuard is the guardrail layer I wanted before letting agents work unattended.
Start with the Python SDK. Add MCP only when you want your coding agent to read traces and budget health. Use the hosted dashboard when local files are not enough.
Observed package downloads from PyPI, updated hourly. Counts include mirror noise filtered out where the upstream supports it. Downloads are a usage signal, not an adoption proof. A conservative floor is shown when every upstream is unavailable.
from agentguard import BudgetGuard, JsonlFileSink, LoopGuard, Tracer
budget = BudgetGuard(max_cost_usd=5.00, max_calls=50)
loop = LoopGuard(max_repeats=3)
tracer = Tracer(
sink=JsonlFileSink(".agentguard/traces.jsonl"),
service="support-agent",
guards=[loop],
)
with tracer.trace("agent.run") as span:
budget.consume(calls=1, cost_usd=0.02)
loop.check("search", {"query": "refund policy"})
span.event("tool.call", data={"tool": "search"})
# Call your agent or tool here.Open source. Local-first. Raises inside the running process when a budget, loop, rate, retry, or timeout limit is crossed.
Read-only access for Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, and other MCP clients to traces, alerts, usage, costs, and budget health.
Use the hosted app for read keys, retained history, alerts, and shared visibility. Keep the first integration local if that is all you need.
Create read key ->Stop a run before an experiment turns into a surprise bill.
Kill repeated tool calls before retries become an operator problem.
Put a hard wall-clock ceiling around unattended agent work.
Keep background jobs from hammering tools while nobody is watching.
Stop retry storms instead of letting flaky tools spin forever.
Write JSONL traces and incident reports without sending data anywhere.
{
"mcpServers": {
"agentguard": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "@agentguard47/mcp-server"],
"env": {
"AGENTGUARD_API_KEY": "ag_your_read_key_here"
}
}
}
}Use AgentGuard when you need runtime controls. The other tools are small utilities from the same workshop. Open what helps. Skip what does not.
$ pip install agentguard47Runtime guardrails for AI agents before they spend money unattended.
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This is not a platform committee. It is Patrick building useful AI tools, using AgentGuard on the agent work that should not run loose.
AgentGuard is the product I reach for before an agent can spend, loop, or run unattended.
22 small agents handle repeatable work: checks, summaries, drafts, and repo chores.
Every useful lesson turns into docs, posts, examples, or another small tool.
Patrick keeps the judgment. The software handles the boring loops around it.
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