Kontext Gas Station

Capabilities

Gas Station is the pump. It moves hosting fuel from your wallet into the servers that run your apps (and your Main Agent). Use it when Deploy or Hosting says fuel is low — not when you want to buy AI credits. That is Pricing.

• Fill a chosen app server by hand

• Automatic top-up when a server drops below your threshold

• Pause a lane so spend stops

• A reserve so one lane cannot drain the whole wallet

• Linked from Workspace Hosting and Deploy when fuel is the problem

What is Gas Station?

Gas Station is the pump. It moves hosting fuel from your wallet into the servers that run your apps (and your Main Agent). Use it when Deploy or Hosting says fuel is low, or when an app cannot serve because the server ran dry. Auto top-up and a manual fill are both optional.

Credits, fuel, and the receipt

AI credits (Pricing / your plan) pay Talk, generate, and agent turns. They are not hosting fuel. Hosting credits pay the compile and host machines. A deploy can fail here even when AI credits look fine. Hosting fuel (Gas Station) keeps the app server running. When it hits zero, that server can freeze or go empty. Audit is the receipt — what ran, and what left the balance. It does not add fuel.

What Gas Station is not

It does not buy AI credits. That is Pricing. It does not explain a chat that spent credits. That is Audit. It is not Finance, which is a staff console, not your bookkeeping.

Route: /gas-station · Also: Deploy/Hosting surfaces link here for lane fueling

Gas Station is the fuel desk for your hosted servers — moving cycle capacity from your user canister wallet to frontend lanes (and related pairs) so deployed apps stay alive on the Internet Computer.

Gas Station (/gas-station) moves cycle fuel from your wallet balance into hosting lane canisters (frontend/backend pairs). Use it when Deploy or Hosting warns about low cycles—not for buying AI credits (see Profile / Pricing). Auto top-up and manual dispense are optional.

• Manual dispense to a chosen lane or server pair

• Automatic top-up when lanes drop below your threshold

• Stop / resume lanes for debugging or spend pause

• Owner reserve guardrails so your account is not drained

• Linked from Workspace Hosting and Deploy preflight

Route: /gas-station · Also: Deploy/Hosting surfaces link here for lane fueling

Gas Station is the fuel desk for your hosted servers — moving cycle capacity from your user canister wallet to frontend lanes (and related pairs) so deployed apps stay alive on the Internet Computer.

Fuel Safety / auto-buy ladder: burn-rate forecasting (“days of fuel left”), opt-in Stripe auto-buy with monthly cap, escalation alerts (7d / 48h / 12h), platform watchdog for frozen owner heartbeats, and a Fuel Safety panel (fleet days-of-fuel, protection level, auto-buy cap/spend, one-click top-up-to-N-days).

Route: /gas-station · Also: Deploy/Hosting surfaces link here for lane fueling

Gas Station is the fuel desk for your hosted servers — moving cycle capacity from your user canister wallet to frontend lanes (and related pairs) so deployed apps stay alive on the Internet Computer.

User-facing capabilities

How it fits the platform

Operator tooling (admin)

Owner principle: You control spend — auto top-up is optional; manual dispense always available.

User journeys

G-01. Top up canister cycles at Gas Station

Path: Module switcher → Gas Station · /gas-station

You do:

1. Open Gas Station when deploy, login, or Hosting hints at low cycles on your user canister.
2. Review wallet-backed balance — Gas Station / cycle-credit balance on your user canister.
3. Choose a top-up amount appropriate to your lane count and expected deploy activity.
4. Confirm payment or credit transfer per in-product checkout (display-cycle amounts shown readably).
5. Wait for balance update on the Gas Station dashboard.
6. Note: topping cycles alone may not restore login if WASM was removed at zero — depleted recovery may need admin reinstall (G-10).
7. Proceed to lane fueling (G-03) or Hosting alignment (G-05) before retrying deploy.

Result: User canister cycle wallet increases; you can fund frontend/backend lanes without immediately hitting empty-canister errors on routine operations.

G-02. Configure automatic lane top-up thresholds

Path: /gas-station → Automatic top-up · lane settings

You do:

1. Open /gas-station and locate Automatic top-up or heartbeat fuel settings.
2. Select which server pairs or lanes participate in scheduled refills.
3. Set below and target thresholds — when a lane drops under minimum, fuel refills toward target.
4. Enable owner reserve guardrails so auto fuel never drains your account past safety floors (G-08).
5. Save schedule — heartbeat checks run on the interval the UI documents.
6. Monitor first auto dispense in Usage history (G-07).
7. Exclude debug lanes with Stop lane if you need manual-only control (G-04).

Result: Lanes stay fueled on autopilot within guardrails you configure; spend remains under your control because auto top-up is optional.

G-03. Manually dispense fuel to a server lane

Path: /gas-station → Manual dispense · select lane

You do:

1. Open Gas Station and identify the frontend or backend lane that needs immediate cycles.
2. Choose Manual dispense for explicit control instead of waiting for heartbeat.
3. Pick the target lane tied to a specific server pair from Workspace Hosting.
4. Enter dispense amount in display-cycle units shown in-product.
5. Confirm reserve guardrails pass — dispense blocked if it would breach minimum owner reserve.
6. Submit and watch confirmation on the lane row balance.
7. Retry deploy or agent runtime on that pair once fuel lands (G-09).

Result: Chosen lane receives an immediate cycle refill from your wallet without enabling full automatic top-up for every lane.

G-04. Stop and resume a lane for spend control

Path: /gas-station → lane row → Stop · Resume

You do:

1. Open /gas-station and locate the lane you want to exclude from automatic fueling.
2. Click Stop lane — debugging, cost pause, or migration hold.
3. Confirm the lane shows stopped status and is skipped by heartbeat auto top-up.
4. Continue manual dispense (G-03) only when you explicitly want to fuel that lane.
5. When ready, click Resume lane to re-include it in automatic policies.
6. Verify the next heartbeat or manual dispense succeeds after resume.
7. Check Workspace Hosting for deploy warnings if a stopped lane runs out during pause.

Result: You pause automatic spend on specific canisters without tearing down the server pair — resume restores normal fuel policy.

G-05. Pair Gas Station with Hosting credits before deploy

Path: Gas Station top-up → Workspace Hosting · pre-deploy checklist

You do:

1. After funding cycles at Gas Station (G-01), open Workspace Hosting for the target project.
2. Confirm hosting credits cover agent and deploy server costs separately from canister cycles.
3. Review server pair status — frontend and backend lanes both show adequate fuel or credit headroom.
4. Align pair selection with the project you intend to deploy.
5. Return to Deploy tab only when both cycle lanes and hosting credits look green.
6. Run deploy preflight — unified fuel policy checks balance before provisioning.
7. If deploy still fails, split diagnosis: cycles vs hosting credits vs WASM depletion (G-10).

Result: Canister cycles and hosting credits are both aligned so ship succeeds end-to-end — cycles alone are not always sufficient.

G-06. Fuel lanes from Workspace Deploy preflight

Path: Workspace → Deploy · Hosting link → Fuel lanes for this pair

You do:

1. Open the project in Workspace and go to Deploy (or Hosting preflight).
2. Read deploy or hosting warnings about low lane cycles before clicking deploy.
3. Follow the in-product link Fuel lanes for this pair (or equivalent Gas Station deep link).
4. Land on Gas Station scoped to the relevant frontend/backend lanes for that pair.
5. Manual dispense (G-03) or confirm auto top-up will cover the shortfall (G-02).
6. Return to Deploy and re-run preflight until fuel checks pass.
7. Execute deploy and capture success confirmation plus canister ids if support needs them.

Result: Deploy UX bridges directly into Gas Station so you fix lane fuel in context without hunting the module blindly.

G-07. Review Gas Station usage history

Path: /gas-station → Usage history · profile usage mirror

You do:

1. Open /gas-station after auto or manual dispenses.
2. Expand Usage history — auto heartbeat refills and manual dispense rows.
3. Filter or scan by date, lane, and dispense type if the UI supports it.
4. Compare spend spikes to deploy or agent activity in Workspace logs.
5. Cross-check profile usage surfaces where Gas Station mirrors history when enabled.
6. Adjust auto thresholds (G-02) if heartbeat over-fuels or under-fuels relative to traffic.
7. Export or screenshot for finance review if you track infra spend externally.

Result: Clear audit trail of who fueled which lane, when, and how much — auto vs manual — for operator accountability.

G-08. Respect owner reserve guardrails when fueling

Path: /gas-station → reserve settings · dispense confirmation

You do:

1. Open Gas Station settings for owner reserve or minimum balance guardrails.
2. Set a floor that leaves enough cycles on your user canister for login and platform ops.
3. Attempt a manual dispense (G-03) that would breach the floor — confirm UI blocks or warns.
4. Lower dispense amount or top up wallet (G-01) before retrying.
5. Enable auto top-up only with reserve checks active — never drain account to zero unintentionally.
6. Read blocked dispense copy carefully; it explains reserve math in display cycles.
7. After successful fueling, confirm user canister balance stays above your configured minimum.

Result: Fuel operations cannot silently drain your account past safety floors — protecting login and owner canister health.

G-09. Recover a deploy after low-cycle failure

Path: Failed deploy → Gas Station → retry Deploy

You do:

1. Note deploy failure symptoms: lane out of cycles, frozen frontend, or preflight fuel error.
2. Open Workspace Hosting to identify which lane failed — frontend vs backend pair.
3. Jump to Gas Station via deploy integration link (G-06) or /gas-station directly.
4. Manual dispense or wait for auto top-up to bring the lane above threshold (G-02, G-03).
5. Confirm hosting credits still cover server billing (G-05).
6. Return to Deploy and re-run build — watch log through success.
7. Validate Live Preview matches post-deploy if your workflow includes preview tab.

Result: Deploy succeeds after aligning lane fuel and hosting credits — routine low-cycle recovery without admin intervention.

G-10. Distinguish frozen vs depleted canister recovery

Path: Login/deploy failure → Gas Station · admin reinstall playbook

You do:

1. Read the error carefully: frozen with cycles > 0 differs from depleted / no Wasm module (IC0537).
2. For frozen: top up cycles via Gas Station (G-01) and use fleet revive paths documented in Fleet Health ops if needed.
3. For depleted at zero: topping cycles alone does not restore WASM — data on that canister may be gone.
4. Do not use browser Deploy WASM for user canister — ingress limit causes 413 failures.
5. Prefer platform reinstall on the same canister id so @handle registry stays valid (admin scripts).
6. After WASM returns, run account bootstrap if Credits shows Account not initialized.
7. Resume normal Gas Station lane fueling only once login and Hosting pair provisioning succeed again.

Result: You apply the right recovery path — fuel for frozen lanes vs reinstall/bootstrap for depleted WASM — instead of repeating doomed top-ups alone.

How it works

Route /gas-station. Wallet-backed cycle pumps from the user canister to hosted lanes. Heartbeat auto top-up, manual dispense, Fuel Safety forecasting/alerts, optional Stripe auto-buy.

Benefits

• Keeps hosted apps alive without surprise freezes.
• Owner-controlled spend with reserves and optional auto-buy caps.

Who it's for

Primary: anyone hosting apps or agent runtimes on IC. Also: platform operators (fleet tooling). Not: guests with no canisters to fuel.