Phase 4: Progressive Escalation - Cost Management & Approval

[silversurfer562]

Phase 4: Cost Management & Approval (Week 4)

Epic: Progressive Tier Escalation System (v4.1.0)
Dependencies: Phase 3 issue

Overview

Implement comprehensive cost management including estimation, approval prompts, budgets, and tracking.

Tasks

• Implement cost estimation logic
• Add approval prompts (CLI)
• Implement auto-approve-under budget
• Add cost tracking in telemetry
• Create cost analysis reports

Cost Features

• Upfront Estimation: Show estimated cost before execution
• Progressive Approval: Prompt before each escalation
• Auto-Approve Budget: --auto-approve-under $X.XX
• Budget Enforcement: Warn or abort on exceeded budget
• Cost Tracking: Save cost breakdown per tier

CLI Examples

# With approval prompts
empathy workflow run test-gen --progressive

# Auto-approve under $5
empathy workflow run test-gen --progressive --auto-approve-under 5.00

# Hard budget limit
empathy workflow run test-gen --progressive --max-cost 10.00 --abort-on-exceeded

Deliverables

• Cost estimation working
• Approval prompts implemented
• Budget checking functional
• Telemetry integration
• Cost analysis reports

Acceptance Criteria

• Cost estimates within 20% of actuals
• Approval prompts show clear cost breakdown
• Budget exceeded triggers warn/abort correctly
• Telemetry captures cost per tier

Related

• Implementation Plan: .claude/plans/progressive-tier-escalation-plan.md

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Status: Not started (blocked by Phase 3)