# Pausing

Pausing takes a target off the meter without deleting it. A paused box costs nothing and counts toward nothing until it is resumed. A stopped one still costs the rest of the month, because stopping is a state and pausing is an accounting act.

## Pausing and resuming

Pause from any target's menu or its detail page. Resume the same way. Resuming past the ceiling is refused like a create, with the number that stopped it named, and starting a paused target resumes it first through the same guard.

## When the ceiling drops

Lowering the ceiling below committed spend pauses the newest targets first until it fits, rather than leaving the account over a cap nothing enforces. One audit entry records the decision, not one per target. Granted boxes are never auto-paused: they cost nothing, so pausing them would be theater.

## Granted boxes

Moderators grant free targets from the Panel. They run like any target, carry a Free pill with the granter's name, and the meter skips them everywhere spend is read: the billing hero, the ceiling strip, and the resume guard. Revoking deletes the box and its env rows, like a delete would.

> Pausing is not stopping, and the dashboard says which is which. If a chip ever claims otherwise, that is a bug: tell us.