The billing unit is a task, not a token
Internal retries, stage records, and tool traces are evidence that the task ran. They are not extra line items. Automatic recovery stays inside the original reservation. A rerun you request is a new task and gets a new estimate.
Reservation is a ceiling
Before model or paid-data work starts, Shipsite shows the estimate and reserves a model-aware maximum. Settlement cannot climb above that cap after the fact. If the task fails before useful execution, the reservation is released according to the task rule.
Your key pays the model; credits pay the factory
When a verified user-owned account pays OpenAI, Anthropic, or another provider directly, Shipsite does not invent a provider-cost credit line for that usage. The orchestration fee remains, because contracts, QA, storage, retries, and handoff still run on Shipsite. There is no BYOK surcharge and no percentage skim.