Choosing a band
Every search runs in a tier, the router's cost band. You set the band once; the agent asks for a wider one only when a task needs it; the router fills in a default when neither did.
The three bands
| tier | what runs | reach for it when |
|---|---|---|
fast | three fast indexes, one from each group, in about a second | a routine lookup; the default for a new key |
balanced | the core providers, each result attributed to its source | you want more than one source, or the first answer came back thin |
max | every core provider | corroboration: the same page found by independent indexes |
A band is also a per-query cost ceiling. A set that would exceed it is trimmed rather than refused, and decision.trimmed names what went. See Providers and tiers.
Setting the band
In an agent that has the skill:
/jevlin tier balanced
/jevlin tier # the band in force
/jevlin tier default # unset it
From a shell:
jevlin agents tier balanced
jevlin agents tier status
jevlin agents tier default
The choice is saved beside your config as search-tier, read by search on its next request, and survives reinstalls. Setting a band asks first in Cursor, Claude Code and Codex.
What wins
From the most specific to the least:
- The request's own
tier. A request that names a tier gets it. - Your band, set with
/jevlin tierorjevlin agents tier. [miner] tierin the config, the same setting one layer down. A word this version cannot use is ignored and named byjevlin agents tier status, rather than stopping the config from loading.- The router's default for your key, when the request carries no tier at all.
What the agent does
The skill tells the agent to leave tier unset for a routine lookup, so your band applies. It asks for "tier":"balanced" when you need to see several sources, or when the first result came back thin. It never sends max: that is yours to choose, because it is the widest fan-out and the highest ceiling.
The agent never changes your band on its own. If you want every search wide for a while, set the band; if you want one search wide, ask the agent to search with balanced and it will name the tier in that one request.
Watching the spend
jevlin limits
Shows this key's spend caps and today's spend against the effective ceiling, read from the router. Reading spends nothing. Each envelope's usage.cost_micros says what one search cost, in millionths of a dollar; the skill mentions it only if you ask.