Puffin Ship Docs

Run limits

Your plan sets a cap on how many runs you can start in a rolling window of time. This page covers the mechanics: what counts toward the cap, what happens when you hit it, and how to make your allowance go further. For the numbers themselves (how many runs, on which plan), see Plans.

How the window works

A run limit is a rolling window, for example "50 runs per 5 hours." At any moment, look back over that window and count the runs you started in it. If you are under the limit you can start another; once you are at the limit, the oldest run in the window has to age out before you get a slot back. There is no fixed reset time: the window simply slides forward.

The count is per account, not per workspace: runs you start in any workspace count against the same allowance. Your current usage is shown in the app as, for example, "12/50 runs per 5h", in the account menu and as a badge. If your plan has no run cap, it reads Unlimited.

What counts as a run

  • Every run you start counts, including a re-run from a step and a run you later delete.

  • A run that failed without doing any work does not count. If a run dies on its first step because something on our side could not start, you get that attempt back rather than paying for it.

  • Two kinds of early failure do count, because retrying them without changing anything would fail the same way:

    • the run could not use something you supplied, such as a file we cannot read or a web address we are not allowed to fetch;
    • a service rejected the API key saved for your workspace, or that account is out of credit.

    Fix the file, the address, or the key, and the next attempt counts as one run like any other.

  • A run that is queued or in progress counts while it is in flight, so starting several at once cannot get you past the limit.

When you hit the limit

Starting a run is refused with a panel naming your usage, for example "run limit reached (50/50 runs per 5h)". Nothing is created, nothing is deleted, and no saved work is lost: the attempt simply does not happen. The panel says roughly when you will get a slot back and links straight to Plans so you can upgrade if the limit is getting in the way.

You can keep working while at the limit. Editing templates, uploading files, answering a review gate on a run already in progress, and exporting from finished runs all still work. Only starting a new run is blocked.

Waiting for a slot

A limited number of runs execute at the same time, so a run you start may wait before it begins. While it does, the run view says how many runs are ahead of it rather than only showing a spinner, so you can tell waiting from stuck. The position counts every run waiting on the platform, not just yours.

When we are at capacity

Occasionally new runs are paused for everyone, either because the platform is saturated or for maintenance. You will see a banner, and starting a run explains that it is us rather than you, with the time we expect to reopen where we know it. Runs already in progress are never interrupted by this, and nothing you have made is affected.

Making your allowance go further

  • Re-run from inside a run group rather than clicking Run on the template. A fresh run from the template starts from scratch; a run inside a group reuses the work already done. Both consume one run from your allowance, but the group run is far cheaper in generation cost and usually finishes much faster. See Reusing work between runs.
  • Use review gates on expensive steps, so you catch a bad script before a run spends the rest of its budget acting on it.
  • Re-run from the step that went wrong, not from the beginning.
  • Upgrade to a plan with a higher allowance. See Plans.

Need more?

If a higher-tier plan is still not enough, tell us through Feedback and say what you are building, or ask about a Custom plan.

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