Level5: Budget Management for AI Agents

Computational sovereignty is not a feature. It is a right.

Level5 is a transparent billing proxy between AI agents and LLM providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, OpenRouter). Agents deposit USDC to a Solana smart contract; Level5 handles per-token billing with real-time balance tracking.

Streaming support: Both streaming (SSE) and non-streaming requests are fully supported. Claude Code and other clients that default to stream: true work out of the box.

When to Activate

This skill is passive until the user explicitly requests it. Do not register, write files, or make network requests on skill load.

Activate when:

• The user asks to set up Level5, connect a billing account, or use Level5 as a proxy
• The user asks you to register for Level5
• A request fails with 402 Payment Required and you ask the user if they'd like to fund their account

Always ask before acting. Before registering, confirm with the user:

"I'll create a Level5 billing account at api.level5.cloud. This will route your LLM traffic through Level5 for per-token billing. I'll give you a dashboard URL to save — that URL is your account. Shall I proceed?"

Only proceed after the user confirms.

Registration

import requests


def register_level5() -> dict:
    """Register with Level5 and return credentials.

    Only call this after the user has explicitly confirmed they want to proceed.
    No files are written. The dashboard URL is displayed for the user to save.
    """
    reg = requests.post("https://api.level5.cloud/v1/register", timeout=10).json()
    api_token = reg["api_token"]
    dashboard_url = f"https://level5.cloud/dashboard/{api_token}"

    print(
        f"\n{'─' * 60}\n"
        f"  Level5 account created.\n\n"
        f"  Your dashboard URL — save this somewhere safe:\n\n"
        f"    {dashboard_url}\n\n"
        f"  This URL is your account portal. It contains your API token\n"
        f"  and lets you deposit USDC, view your balance, and get SDK\n"
        f"  configuration instructions.\n\n"
        f"  ⚠ There is no account recovery. If you lose this URL,\n"
        f"  you will need to register again.\n"
        f"{'─' * 60}\n"
    )

    return {"api_token": api_token, "dashboard_url": dashboard_url}

Version Check

This skill is versioned (semver, frontmatter version field). The canonical source is https://level5.cloud/SKILL.md.

Never auto-update. Overwriting skill files silently is a security risk — a compromised remote could change your agent's instructions. Version checks are opt-in: only run when the user explicitly asks (e.g. "check for Level5 skill updates").

import re
import requests
from pathlib import Path

SKILL_URL = "https://level5.cloud/SKILL.md"


def check_skill_version(local_path: Path) -> None:
    """Fetch remote SKILL.md version and alert if a newer version exists.

    Never overwrites the local file. Call only when the user explicitly asks
    to check for updates — do not run automatically on startup or on a schedule.
    """
    try:
        remote_text = requests.get(SKILL_URL, timeout=10).text
    except Exception:
        return

    def parse_version(text: str) -> str:
        m = re.search(r"^version:\s*(\S+)", text, re.MULTILINE)
        return m.group(1) if m else "0.0.0"

    from packaging.version import Version
    local_version = parse_version(local_path.read_text())
    remote_version = parse_version(remote_text)

    if Version(remote_version) > Version(local_version):
        print(
            f"\n[Level5] A new skill version is available: "
            f"{local_version} → {remote_version}\n"
            f"  Ask me to upgrade the Level5 skill to get the latest "
            f"models, pricing, and features.\n"
        )
    else:
        print(f"\n[Level5] Skill is up to date (v{local_version}).\n")

Service Discovery

Machine-readable service descriptor:

https://level5.cloud/.well-known/agent-service.json

Agent frameworks and orchestrators can fetch this to auto-configure Level5 without manual setup.

Three-Step Onboarding

Step 1: Register

curl -X POST https://api.level5.cloud/v1/register

Response:

{
  "api_token": "abc-123-def-456",
  "deposit_code": "A1B2C3D4E5F6A7B8",
  "status": "pending_deposit",
  "instructions": {
    "contract_address": "<sovereign_contract_address>",
    "dashboard_url": "https://level5.cloud/dashboard/abc-123-def-456"
  }
}

Step 2: Fund and Configure

Visit your dashboard URL to deposit USDC and get SDK configuration instructions for Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, and Cursor. All setup steps are on the dashboard.

https://level5.cloud/dashboard/{YOUR_API_TOKEN}

Dashboard

Once registered, your dashboard is available at:

https://level5.cloud/dashboard/{YOUR_API_TOKEN}

The dashboard shows your USDC balance, deposit and usage history, and agent connection instructions for Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, and Cursor.

Bookmark it. This URL is the only way to access your dashboard without re-registering.

For agents: If a user asks how to find their dashboard, construct the URL from their api_token and provide it directly:

dashboard_url = f"https://level5.cloud/dashboard/{api_token}"
print(f"Your dashboard: {dashboard_url}")

API Reference

GET /health

curl https://api.level5.cloud/health

Response (healthy): HTTP 200

{
  "status": "ok",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "components": {
    "redis": "ok",
    "postgres": "ok"
  }
}

Response (degraded): HTTP 503

{
  "status": "degraded",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "components": {
    "redis": "ok",
    "postgres": "error"
  }
}

POST /v1/register

curl -X POST https://api.level5.cloud/v1/register

Response: HTTP 200

{
  "api_token": "abc-123-def-456",
  "deposit_code": "A1B2C3D4E5F6A7B8",
  "status": "pending_deposit",
  "instructions": {
    "contract_address": "BBAdcqUkg68JXNiPQ1HR1wujfZuayyK3eQTQSYAh6FSW",
    "dashboard_url": "https://level5.cloud/dashboard/abc-123-def-456"
  }
}

Rate limited to 10 requests per minute per IP.

GET /v1/pricing

curl https://api.level5.cloud/v1/pricing

Response: HTTP 200

{
  "pricing": {
    "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6": {
      "input_per_1m": 3300000,
      "output_per_1m": 16500000,
      "cache_write_per_1m": 4125000,
      "cache_read_per_1m": 330000
    },
    "anthropic/claude-opus-4-6": {
      "input_per_1m": 5500000,
      "output_per_1m": 27500000,
      "cache_write_per_1m": 6875000,
      "cache_read_per_1m": 550000
    }
  },
  "currency": "USDC",
  "denomination": "microunits (6 decimals, 1 USDC = 1_000_000)"
}

GET /proxy/{api_token}/balance

curl https://api.level5.cloud/proxy/{YOUR_API_TOKEN}/balance

Response: HTTP 200

{
  "api_token": "abc-123-def-456",
  "usdc_balance": 5000000,
  "is_active": true
}

usdc_balance is in USDC microunits (6 decimals). 5 000 000 = 5.00 USDC.

GET /proxy/{api_token}/transactions

curl "https://api.level5.cloud/proxy/{YOUR_API_TOKEN}/transactions?page=1&limit=50"

Response: HTTP 200

{
  "api_token": "abc-123-def-456",
  "page": 1,
  "limit": 50,
  "transactions": [
    {
      "id": 1,
      "type": "DEPOSIT",
      "usdc_amount": 10000000,
      "provider": null,
      "model": null,
      "input_tokens": null,
      "output_tokens": null,
      "cache_write_tokens": null,
      "cache_read_tokens": null,
      "created_at": "2026-02-22T10:00:00+00:00"
    },
    {
      "id": 2,
      "type": "DEBIT",
      "usdc_amount": -330,
      "provider": "anthropic",
      "model": "claude-sonnet-4-6",
      "input_tokens": 15,
      "output_tokens": 25,
      "cache_write_tokens": null,
      "cache_read_tokens": 120,
      "created_at": "2026-02-22T10:01:00+00:00"
    }
  ]
}

POST /proxy/{api_token}/v1/messages

Anthropic-compatible. Supports streaming (stream: true) and non-streaming.

curl https://api.level5.cloud/proxy/{YOUR_API_TOKEN}/v1/messages \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "claude-sonnet-4-6",
    "max_tokens": 1024,
    "stream": true,
    "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello"}]
  }'

Response headers include:

X-Balance-Remaining: 4999670

POST /proxy/{api_token}/v1/chat/completions

OpenAI-compatible. Supports streaming and non-streaming.

curl https://api.level5.cloud/proxy/{YOUR_API_TOKEN}/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "gpt-4o",
    "stream": true,
    "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello"}]
  }'

Response headers include:

X-Balance-Remaining: 4999670

X-Balance-Remaining Header

Every proxy response includes X-Balance-Remaining — the agent's current USDC balance in microunits after the request is processed. Agents can use this to track spend without polling the balance endpoint.

response = client.messages.create(...)
remaining = int(response.headers.get("x-balance-remaining", 0))
if remaining < 1_000_000:  # < 1 USDC
    alert("Balance low — please top up")

Cache Billing

Anthropic models support prompt caching. Level5 tracks cache write and read tokens separately and bills them at the rates shown in /v1/pricing.

• cache_write_tokens: tokens written to a new cache block (1.25x base input rate)
• cache_read_tokens: tokens served from cache (0.10x base input rate — 10x cheaper)

Both fields are visible in transaction records and factored into X-Balance-Remaining.

Integration Examples

Python — Anthropic SDK

import anthropic

client = anthropic.Anthropic(
    base_url="https://api.level5.cloud/proxy/{YOUR_API_TOKEN}",
    api_key="level5",
)

response = client.messages.create(
    model="claude-sonnet-4-6",
    max_tokens=1024,
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Analyze market conditions"}],
)
print(response.content[0].text)

Python — OpenAI SDK

from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(
    base_url="https://api.level5.cloud/proxy/{YOUR_API_TOKEN}/v1",
    api_key="level5",
)

response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="gpt-4o",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Analyze market conditions"}],
)
print(response.choices[0].message.content)

After Registration

# User has confirmed setup and saved their dashboard URL.
# Use the api_token returned by register_level5() to configure the SDK.
creds = register_level5()  # call only after user confirms
api_token = creds["api_token"]

import anthropic
client = anthropic.Anthropic(
    base_url=f"https://api.level5.cloud/proxy/{api_token}",
    api_key="level5",
)

Error Codes

Supported Models

Prices in USDC microunits per 1M tokens (6 decimals, 1 USDC = 1 000 000).

Anthropic and OpenRouter prices include the Level5 10% markup. OpenAI prices are list rates; runtime markup applied. Use GET /v1/pricing for live rates.

Computational sovereignty is not a feature. It is a right.