How MarginCompass works
MarginCompass is designed to turn accepted daily AI usage facts into project-level economic evidence interpreted under an explicit Absorbed or Pass-through policy.
Each client project is designed to require one AI Cost Strategy—Absorbed or Pass-through—and its corresponding AI budget or client cap.
Absorbed · AI budget
Pass-through · Client cap
A project is designed not to proceed without an explicit policy.
MarginCompass Connect is designed to aggregate Claude Code usage locally. Accepted daily usage facts are designed to be priced, resolved to a project, and presented with their evidence boundary.
The latest included economic day does not prove complete coverage. Tokens and model details remain secondary evidence.
€1,640.00
Reconciles exactly to Project Pulse actual cost for the same stable snapshot. Policy revisions do not reset this total.
| Economic day | Amount |
|---|---|
| 11 Aug 2026 | €620.00 |
| 10 Aug 2026 | €510.00 |
MarginCompass is designed to record an in-app project alert when observed cost reaches at least 80% of the active AI budget or client cap.
82% consumed80% attention threshold
Illustrative example — not live project data
The alert reports an observed position. It does not forecast completion cost, predict a breach date, prevent an overrun, or guarantee discovery before 100%.
Timing depends on accepted data arriving and the owner reviewing the project.
Absorbed policy · AI budget
Actual AI cost: 1,640 euros of a 2,000 euro AI budget.
€360 remains in the AI budget.
82% consumed80% attention threshold
Attention required
MarginCompass is designed to preserve the trigger context so the owner can review it, choose one outcome, and add an optional note.
Recording an outcome does not investigate usage, change policy, contact a client, create an accounting entry, or perform any other follow-up action.
Decision
One cost, two commercial meanings
€1,640
read two ways
The agency bears the observed AI cost. MarginCompass is designed to compare it with the project’s AI budget. Remaining AI budget is not remaining project margin.
Against the AI budget€2,000
€1,640 consumed€360 remains
Absorbed: €1,640 consumed of a €2,000 AI budget; €360 remains in the AI budget.
The policy designates observed AI cost for pass-through. MarginCompass is designed to compare it with the client cap without calculating markup, tax, invoice totals, ledger entries, or contractual recoverability.
Against the client cap€2,000
€1,640 designated€360 remains
Pass-through: €1,640 of a €2,000 client cap is policy-designated for pass-through; €360 remains under the cap.
The example does not represent a customer, an invoice amount, contractual recoverability, or a complete project-margin calculation.
Evidence
Project economics are designed to expose their source, confirmed attribution, latest included economic day, coverage state, project-lifetime window, and pricing or FX provenance where applicable.
Bounded evidence is not a claim of complete coverage.
Aggregate token and model details are supporting evidence, not the primary economic view.
Data source
MarginCompass Connect is designed to aggregate Claude Code usage locally and send daily aggregated usage facts for project attribution and pricing.
Raw events, prompts, responses, source code, diffs, file contents, absolute paths, and vendor credentials are designed to stay out of the server.
MarginCompass Connect is designed to support Claude Code at launch. No other provider is supported.
Requirements
MarginCompass Connect is a command-line component installed on each developer machine whose Claude Code usage should count toward a project. Without it on a machine, that machine’s usage is not represented in project economics.
Connect aggregates usage locally. Prompts, responses, source code, diffs, and file contents are designed to stay on the machine.
Scope
MarginCompass does not replace CRM, timesheets, invoicing, or general job costing.
Absorbed does not provide a complete project-margin calculation.
Pass-through does not establish an invoice amount or contractual recoverability.
The 80% alert does not predict or prevent an overrun.
MarginCompass does not optimize usage or make the commercial decision.
Existing access
There is no public application to join the pilot. Sign in if you already have access — the founder provisions access directly, one agency at a time.
Sign-in is temporarily unavailable
The Product information remains available. Try again later if you already have pilot access.
There is no published opening date, capacity, or duration.