u/DTBlayde

Curious how FinOps teams are thinking about LLM/agent usage attribution.

The spend number itself seems relatively easy to capture if everything flows through an API gateway, vendor usage export, proxy, or billing report.

The harder part seems to be tying that spend back to the actual work it supported.

For example:

• an agent task fans out into multiple model calls
• the cost lands on whatever service key or proxy path fired the request
• the model call may not know the story, workstream, repo, branch, or business context
• leadership can see total spend, but not what work that spend supported

One pattern I’ve heard is tagging at the orchestration/task layer instead of the individual model-call layer, so the cost follows the outcome rather than just the API request.

For teams dealing with this:

How are you attributing LLM or agent spend today?

Are you tagging usage up front by task/workstream/story/repo?

Are you reconciling it after the fact from logs, traces, Jira/GitHub data, or usage exports?

Or is this still mostly unresolved?

I’m exploring this problem and trying to understand where the attribution layer should live before overbuilding the wrong solution.

So everyone obviously knows about the supernova that was Fisker. Lofty promises, and an implosion just about as quickly as they started shipping vehicles. EV companies going bankrupt isn't a new thing, but Fisker did manage to do something that others did not: They actually delivered some vehicles. I see Fisker brought up pretty often in discussions on this subreddit, or for subreddits of some smaller EV manufacturers. So what have owners been up to owning a car with no manufacturer? As someone who has owned their Ocean for more than 2 years now, I wanted to share what we've been up to as owners.

First, we formed the Fisker Owners Association, a non profit whose sole focus is improving the ownership experience for members. This included getting a seat at the table in the bankruptcy hearing, ensuring that software and hardware recalls had funding set aside to rectify owner vehicles. None of us were experienced in the automotive world. Some had experience in things like logistics or software engineering or the law, but most of us are learning on the fly. The truth is, nothing can really prepare you to essentially become your own car company almost overnight. That’s doubly true when it is a group of volunteers spanning every corner of the globe doing this in their “spare time” after work and family obligations (although some of our families would probably say we spend too much time doing this!).

From there, we formed two subsidiaries. First, Tsunami Automotive for North America and Tidal Wave for EU. These are parts distribution companies. We started with working with the manufacturer of the Fisker key fobs (Chevalier). We only received one OEM fob from Fisker, and the few extras that were available were being sold for more than $1000 by shops. We negotiated a deal to get an extra fob and two NFC key cards for half that price. We have also sourced windshields and new performance brake pads amongst other existing parts stock. We are working on sourcing new production of parts as well.

The other leg was Undercurrent. A software company focused on Oceans. Their first task was to create OceanLink Pro in collaboration with Majd Srour - a replacement for Fisker's barely functioning OEM app. OLP introduced Phone as Key fully working for the first time on the vehicle. OLP has other handy features as well, including a vehicle diagnostics suite. This lets you pair new keys, read and clear DTCs, perform calibrations, and more. Unprecedented levels of owner control.

The FOA also worked with Chevalier on a new software version for their Phone Key Controller ECU inside the vehicle. This included upgraded FOB battery life, responsiveness, bug fixes, and the ability to precondition your cabin when within bluetooth range. We created a volunteer network to install these updates at meetups worldwide. To date we've updated thousands of cars this way.

Most recently, Majd Srour (mentioned above) released his new hardware upgrade for the vehicle - OceanLink Pulse - in coordination with EV Play. The FOA supported this endeavor with OLP integration and access to mobile data through a group plan. OLP and the FOA data connection allows for sending vehicle commands (lock/unlock, preconditioning, and more) over the internet, removing the bluetooth requirement. Pulse fully integrates with the vehicle to enhance the Ocean experience - Bringing features like Android Auto/Carplay, Bring your own eSIM for mobile data, full native rooted Android, HDMI passthrough, 12v monitoring, battery health, and more. We have only begun scratching the surface of what is possible with Pulse, things like proximity lock/unlock, camera view on blinker, and more have been explored.

And we’re still not done thinking of new ways to make this car better. Since Pulse connects directly to the CAN lines of the vehicle, Majd's next endeavor is to integrate OpenPilot with Pulse and the Ocean, bringing ADAS features to the car that Fisker was never able to finish.

This is just a small subset of what has been accomplished since Fisker went into bankruptcy. We are still working on expanding the number of service locations, continuing to increase the parts supply, providing owners more DIY diagnostic and software capabilities, and much much more. I'm sure I forgot a bunch of stuff as well. But I wanted to share that we are not dead, and that I would argue we are better off now than we were when Fisker was alive. It's been an incredible community journey. One that is fighting to blaze a new trail in right to repair, vehicle ownership, and other avenues that have been slowly degrading over the years.

I tried to keep it relatively short and sweet. The reality is there is SO much more going on and obviously plenty of ups and downs. I'd love to answer questions if any of yall have some, whether about Ocean ownership or any of the things in this thread.