Economicocontracts.observe_usage
Record vendor usage observations (1–200) against a metered right of a vendor contract, each priced as an estimate and attributed to a customer, person, team or project. Re-sending an observation is safe.
What it does
Record 1 to 200 usage observations for one right with a usage block, in one transaction: one event per usage period the batch touches, dated at that period’s latest observation. Each observation is identified by producer and sourceId: the same revision with the same content is skipped (its evidence may differ), with different content refused, and a higher revision restates the bucket and prices only the change.
A priced meter prices each observation as the change in its usage period’s price (tiers and allowances exact, the period rounded once), an observed_amount meter takes the vendor’s own cost (observedAmount, in minor units times 10^amountDecimals), and a none meter only counts. The estimate accrues an expense (2120 Accrued expenses) or draws the right’s credit pool (5950 for granted credit, 1150 for bought lots); its function is the meter’s customerFunction (default cost of revenue) for usage attributed to a customer, the team’s function when given with team, else the right’s own.
Attribution is opaque context: customer (a party id), customerContract, holder (a person: a pseudonym or an email address, at most 254 characters), team with function, project, key and up to 8 tags, recorded as given. A usage period holds at most 1,000 attribution keys. After the period is billed an observation is late: counted and priced, never posted.
Before you send it
An authorized OAuth connection may call it, including a headless client. Effective membership, application grant and token permissions still apply. Describe contracts.observe_usage through GET /v1/catalog/commands/{name} before acting.
This command does not accept source_document_id in its envelope. Any input evidence requirements remain as documented below.
Inputs
Put these fields inside the envelope’s input object. The outer envelope names the command, a stable idempotency_key and effective_at; request and recovery rules explain those separately. Use exact minor-unit integer strings for monetary fields. Take existing IDs from prior reads or command results; choose a new identity only where the command asks for one.
Required means required within its containing object; an optional parent can be omitted.
| Field | Type | Required | Meaning and accepted values |
|---|---|---|---|
contractId | string | Yes | Minimum length: 1. Example: "ctr_example". |
activityKey | string | Yes | Minimum length: 1. Example: "actions_linux". |
observations | array | Yes | Items: object. Minimum items: 1. Maximum items: 200. |
observations[].producer | string | Yes | Minimum length: 1. Maximum length: 64. Example: "github-billing-usage". |
observations[].sourceId | string | Yes | Minimum length: 1. Maximum length: 256. Example: "2026-09-14/actions_linux/acme-org/acme-api". |
observations[].revision | integer | Yes | Minimum: 1. Example: 1. |
observations[].effectiveAt | string | Yes | Format: date-time. Example: "2026-09-14T00:00:00Z". |
observations[].bucket | object | No | |
observations[].bucket.from | string | Yes | Format: date-time. |
observations[].bucket.through | string | Yes | Format: date-time. |
observations[].quantity | string | No | Pattern: "^(0|[1-9][0-9]*)$". Example: "740". |
observations[].observedAmount | string | No | Pattern: "^(0|[1-9][0-9]*)$". |
observations[].unit | string | No | Minimum length: 1. Maximum length: 64. |
observations[].attribution | object | No | |
observations[].attribution.customer | string | No | Minimum length: 1. Maximum length: 64. Example: "pty_acme". |
observations[].attribution.customerContract | string | No | Minimum length: 1. Maximum length: 64. |
observations[].attribution.holder | string | No | Minimum length: 1. Maximum length: 254. |
observations[].attribution.team | string | No | Minimum length: 1. Maximum length: 64. |
observations[].attribution.function | string | No | Choose "cost_of_revenue", "research_and_development", "sales_and_marketing", "general_and_administrative", "other". |
observations[].attribution.project | string | No | Minimum length: 1. Maximum length: 64. Example: "acme-api". |
observations[].attribution.key | string | No | Minimum length: 1. Maximum length: 64. |
observations[].attribution.tags | object | No | |
observations[].evidence | array | Yes | Items: object. Minimum items: 1. Maximum items: 20. |
observations[].evidence[].kind | string | Yes | Choose "tap_message", "x402_receipt", "chain_tx", "signed_doc", "stripe_object", "other". Example: "other". |
observations[].evidence[].ref | string | Yes | Minimum length: 1. Example: "doc_example". |
observations[].evidence[].signer | string | No | Minimum length: 1. |
After acceptance
When the command emits events, its documented effects and receipt are recorded in the command transaction. The response returns commandId, replayed, the command-specific result below and emitted events with their IDs and CIDs. A command is not automatically a cash movement or revenue recognition: use the behavior above to determine what this command records.
Inspect result and the affected records or reports before continuing. Save returned identifiers for later calls. Fetch GET /v1/commands/{id} with commandId to recover the accepted receipt; retry the same intent with the same idempotency key if the response was lost. Some commands can succeed with events: [] and return a transient result and commandId without persisting a receipt. A lookup of that ID can return null; retain the returned result and verify the affected record. Retrying can re-evaluate the current state rather than replay a stored result. A domain no_change is a separate success outcome with no persisted receipt.
Result fields
See the exact schema below for the accepted shape.
All commands · Operation and errors · Reusable schemas
Keep credentials out of prompts; rehearse writes only in a disposable sandbox.
Exact request schema
{
"$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
"type": "object",
"properties": {
"name": {
"const": "contracts.observe_usage"
},
"input": {
"type": "object",
"additionalProperties": false,
"required": [
"contractId",
"activityKey",
"observations"
],
"properties": {
"contractId": {
"type": "string",
"minLength": 1
},
"activityKey": {
"type": "string",
"minLength": 1
},
"observations": {
"type": "array",
"minItems": 1,
"maxItems": 200,
"items": {
"type": "object",
"additionalProperties": false,
"required": [
"producer",
"sourceId",
"revision",
"effectiveAt",
"evidence"
],
"properties": {
"producer": {
"type": "string",
"minLength": 1,
"maxLength": 64
},
"sourceId": {
"type": "string",
"minLength": 1,
"maxLength": 256
},
"revision": {
"type": "integer",
"minimum": 1
},
"effectiveAt": {
"type": "string",
"format": "date-time"
},
"bucket": {
"type": "object",
"additionalProperties": false,
"required": [
"from",
"through"
],
"properties": {
"from": {
"type": "string",
"format": "date-time"
},
"through": {
"type": "string",
"format": "date-time"
}
}
},
"quantity": {
"type": "string",
"pattern": "^(0|[1-9][0-9]*)$"
},
"observedAmount": {
"type": "string",
"pattern": "^(0|[1-9][0-9]*)$"
},
"unit": {
"type": "string",
"minLength": 1,
"maxLength": 64
},
"attribution": {
"type": "object",
"additionalProperties": false,
"properties": {
"customer": {
"type": "string",
"minLength": 1,
"maxLength": 64
},
"customerContract": {
"type": "string",
"minLength": 1,
"maxLength": 64
},
"holder": {
"type": "string",
"minLength": 1,
"maxLength": 254
},
"team": {
"type": "string",
"minLength": 1,
"maxLength": 64
},
"function": {
"enum": [
"cost_of_revenue",
"research_and_development",
"sales_and_marketing",
"general_and_administrative",
"other"
]
},
"project": {
"type": "string",
"minLength": 1,
"maxLength": 64
},
"key": {
"type": "string",
"minLength": 1,
"maxLength": 64
},
"tags": {
"type": "object",
"maxProperties": 8,
"additionalProperties": {
"type": "string",
"minLength": 1,
"maxLength": 64
}
}
}
},
"evidence": {
"type": "array",
"minItems": 1,
"maxItems": 20,
"items": {
"type": "object",
"additionalProperties": false,
"required": [
"kind",
"ref"
],
"properties": {
"kind": {
"enum": [
"tap_message",
"x402_receipt",
"chain_tx",
"signed_doc",
"stripe_object",
"other"
]
},
"ref": {
"type": "string",
"minLength": 1
},
"signer": {
"type": "string",
"minLength": 1
}
}
}
}
}
}
}
}
},
"idempotency_key": {
"type": "string",
"minLength": 1,
"maxLength": 256
},
"effective_at": {
"type": "string",
"format": "date-time",
"pattern": "^(?:(?:\\d\\d[2468][048]|\\d\\d[13579][26]|\\d\\d0[48]|[02468][048]00|[13579][26]00)-02-29|\\d{4}-(?:(?:0[13578]|1[02])-(?:0[1-9]|[12]\\d|3[01])|(?:0[469]|11)-(?:0[1-9]|[12]\\d|30)|(?:02)-(?:0[1-9]|1\\d|2[0-8])))T(?:(?:[01]\\d|2[0-3]):[0-5]\\d:[0-5]\\d(?:\\.\\d+)?(?:Z))$"
}
},
"required": [
"name",
"input",
"idempotency_key",
"effective_at"
],
"additionalProperties": false
}Accepted command receipt
{
"type": "object",
"required": [
"commandId",
"replayed",
"result",
"events"
],
"properties": {
"commandId": {
"type": "string"
},
"replayed": {
"type": "boolean"
},
"imported": {
"const": true,
"description": "The command's events are history from before the business joined Economico, recorded as an import: free of monthly events."
},
"result": {
"type": "object"
},
"events": {
"type": "array",
"items": {
"type": "object",
"properties": {
"id": {
"type": "integer"
},
"cid": {
"type": "string"
}
}
}
}
}
}Example request
{
"name": "contracts.observe_usage",
"input": {
"contractId": "ctr_example",
"activityKey": "actions_linux",
"observations": [
{
"producer": "github-billing-usage",
"sourceId": "2026-09-14/actions_linux/acme-org/acme-api",
"revision": 1,
"effectiveAt": "2026-09-14T00:00:00Z",
"quantity": "740",
"attribution": {
"customer": "pty_acme",
"project": "acme-api"
},
"evidence": [
{
"kind": "other",
"ref": "doc_example"
}
]
}
]
},
"effective_at": "2026-09-01T00:00:00Z",
"idempotency_key": "contracts.observe_usage-example-0"
}