C
CARTIEAI™
PricingTry free
Patent pending · auto-negotiation engine

Budget Negotiator™

Most FinOps tools just report cost. This one automates the negotiation between Finance's desire for predictability and Engineering's desire for speed — at the code level, before the resource is ever provisioned.

Finance pre-signs quarterly budget envelopes per cost-center. Engineer opens a PR. Predicted cost is checked against the envelope automatically: green auto-merges, yellow routes to team-lead, red opens a structured renegotiation flow.

How it works

The full Finance ↔ Engineering contract is machine-readable and lives in your repo. Every PR is automatically classified into one of three decision bands before merge.

1 · contract.json (signed by CFO + VP-Eng)
{
  "envelope_id": "env_payments_q1_2026",
  "cost_center": "payments-api",
  "owner": "cfo@example.com",
  "quarter": "2026-Q1",
  "monthly_envelope_usd": 18000,
  "thresholds": {
    "green_auto_approve_pct": 75,
    "yellow_review_pct":      90,
    "red_renegotiate_pct":   100
  },
  "signed_by": {
    "finance":     "cfo@example.com",
    "engineering": "vp-eng@example.com",
    "signed_at":   "2026-01-15T14:30:00Z",
    "signature_sha": "0x4a8c1e0a2d3f..."
  },
  "auto_actions": {
    "on_green":  "merge_pr",
    "on_yellow": "request_review_from_team_lead",
    "on_red":    "open_renegotiation_flow"
  }
}

Stored in your repo at .cartie/envelopes/*.json. Version-controlled, signature-verified, audit-logged.

2 · 3-band decision tree
CARTIE computes projected_utilization = (current_spend + predicted_delta) / monthly_envelope
Green
< 75% of envelope
Budget OK · cleared to merge
PR auto-merges. Predicted cost stays well within envelope. No human approval needed.
Yellow
75–90% of envelope
Lead approval needed
Routes to team-lead. They must explicitly approve before merge. CFO is notified async.
Red
> 90% of envelope
Re-envelope · structured renegotiation
Merge blocked. Engineer files structured ask (revenue, strategic impact). Finance approves with digital signature → envelope is updated → PR unblocked.
Thresholds are configurable per envelope (defaults: 75% green / 90% yellow / 100% red). All three decisions write to the audit log with the contract version, commit SHA, and signature hash.
3 · sequence — engineer opens PR → merge or renegotiation
1
EngineerOpens PR with infra change (Terraform / K8s manifest / IaC).
2
CARTIEPredicts monthly $ delta from the PR diff. Looks up the cost-center envelope.
3
NegotiatorComputes projected_utilization = (current + delta) / envelope. Classifies Green / Yellow / Red.
4
DecisionOn Green → posts ✓ check on PR + auto-merges. On Yellow → blocks merge until team-lead approves. On Red → opens renegotiation issue with revenue + strategic ask.
5
FinanceIf Red: reviews the structured ask. Approves with digital signature → envelope is bumped → PR unblocked + contract.json updated.
6
AuditEvery contract signature, decision, and override is logged immutably for SOC 2 audit.
SLA: Green decisions in <200ms · Yellow notifications within 30s · Red renegotiations carry a 48h Finance SLA.

Live demo

Real envelopes signed by a sample Finance team on the left. Open PRs from a sample Engineering team on the right. Every PR has already been auto-classified.

Finance · Budget envelopes
Quarterly envelopes pre-signed by the CFO. The contract Finance and Engineering both honor.
payments-api
owner: checkout-team
$8,420 / $12,000
70.2% used
ml-platform
owner: ml-platform-team
$67,400 / $80,000
84.3% used
data-warehouse
owner: data-team
$21,200 / $30,000
70.7% used
marketing-rag
owner: marketing-eng-team
$5,740 / $6,000
95.7% used
Engineering · PR queue
Each open PR is auto-checked against its cost-center's envelope. Three outcomes.
PR #4821 · rahul.m@cartieai.com
feat: add Redis cluster for session cache
$240/mo
→ 72.2%
Auto-approved · within budget envelope
Predicted +$240/mo. Combined utilization 72.2% — under 80% threshold. Auto-merging.
✓ Contract: commit 8a3f2e9 · envelope Q1-2026-v1 · reconcile-by 2026-03-31
PR #4830 · priya.s@cartieai.com
feat: GPT-4 fallback when Claude rate-limits
$9,800/mo
→ 96.5%
Review required · approaching budget ceiling
Predicted +$9,800/mo. Combined utilization would hit 96.5%. Requires team-lead sign-off before merge — exceeds the 80% auto-approve threshold but below the 100% block threshold.
PR #4838 · alex.t@cartieai.com
feat: real-time embeddings for content moderation
$3,200/mo
→ 149%
Blocked · renegotiation required
Predicted +$3,200/mo on a cost-center already at 95.7% utilization. Combined would hit 149%. Engineer must file a renegotiation request with revenue or strategic-impact justification before merge is allowed.
What-if simulator
Try the auto-negotiator on any predicted PR delta — see the merge decision instantly.
Renegotiations in flight · awaiting Finance
Red-band PRs file structured asks with revenue + strategic-impact justification. Finance approves with a digital signature → envelope is updated → engineer is unblocked.
reneg-2026-013 · PR #4838 · alex.t@cartieai.com
SLA 18h left
Ask: +$3,500/mo
Why: Real-time embeddings for content moderation. Enables compliance with EU DSA Q2 deadline.
Revenue impact: Unblocks $42K MRR of enterprise contracts that require DSA compliance. 12x ROI on the cost increase.
Strategic: Required for staying GDPR-compliant. Failure = customer churn risk.
→ Approver: cfo@cartieai.com

Sign your first envelope in 5 minutes

14-day pilot · no card · we ship a sample contract.json for your top 3 cost-centers and wire the auto-negotiator into your GitHub Actions.

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