---
title: "Integrity"
url: https://services.dev/docs/people/pool/integrity
---
# Integrity

URL: https://services.dev/docs/people/pool/integrity

> Throttles and breakers sit outside the track record. A Pool can cap claims a day and open holds, and pause offers to a member whose declines or late releases run past a share. A pause is never scored, and a refusal never is.

How does a Pool keep one member from hoarding work or churning through it, without punishing a member for saying no?

## Limits sit outside the track record

A [track record](https://services.dev/docs/people/pool/track.md) is outcomes only. Limits are a separate brake, and they never write to it:

| Limit | What it does | What it never does |
|---|---|---|
| `claims: '<n>/day'` | stops a member's claims for the day once they reach it | count against their tier |
| `open: <n>` | stops new claims while they hold that many Tasks | release a Task they already hold |
| `declines: '<pct>'` | pauses offers to a member whose declines pass that share of their recent Tasks, until the owner lifts it | touch the track record, take back pay, or refuse a Task they hold |
| `late_releases: '<pct>'` | in a [work register](https://services.dev/docs/people/pool/register.md), pauses offers to a member who gives back that share of their claimed windows after `notice` | count a release before `notice`, a client's cancel or a moved window |

A decline stays paid and the client's to direct. What a limit does is slow offers, never judge the work. The member reads which limit paused them, and when it lifts.

## Why a decline isn't a score

A member who declines is exercising the judgment the step is there for. Scoring it would teach members to sign what they shouldn't. So a decline is paid like an attestation, never scored, and only a pattern past the Pool's own `declines` share pauses offers, as a signal for the owner to read, with the member told why.

## Keys

| Key | Written | Left out | Does |
|---|---|---|---|
| `limits` | `{ claims?: '${number}/day'; open?: number; declines?: Pct; late_releases?: Pct }` | none | Throttles and breakers, kept outside the track record. |

---

- Up: [Pool(): your marketplace](https://services.dev/docs/people/pool.md)
- Previous: [Track records](https://services.dev/docs/people/pool/track.md)
- Next: [Coverage in force](https://services.dev/docs/people/pool/coverage.md)