Gate runtime rules

This section defines the runtime contract for:

• authorize
• commit
• ingest

This section does not repeat field-level API reference. It defines decision semantics, failure classes, and retry-safe behavior.

System contract

• authorize is the admission step. It evaluates entitlement, active policy windows, and funding/budget feasibility, then issues a lease.
• commit is the settlement step for authorized work. It validates the lease context, prices usage, writes rating facts, and settles.
• ingest is direct usage write without authorize. It prices and writes rating facts directly for service-to-service accounting.

Shared rules across operations

• Every operation requires explicit idempotency handling.
• Every operation is scoped by realm and billing account context.
• Feature and meter codes must be valid normalized identifiers.
• Hint emission is first-class: clients and operators should consume hints, not only status code.

Operation matrix

Operation	Main purpose	Requires lease	Applies quota/rate	Writes ratings
authorize	Admission and lease issuance	No	Evaluates windows for admission	No
commit	Finalized priced commit for authorized work	Yes	Applies quota counters at commit	Yes
ingest	Direct priced usage ingest	No	No authorize lease flow	Yes

In this section

• Authorize rules: Authorize
• Commit rules: Commit
• Ingest rules: Ingest
• Idempotency and leases: Idempotency and leases
• Hints and failure semantics: Hints and failure semantics
• Policy design and configuration: Plans gate policies