Automated actions in IQ Steward
Last updated: November 2, 2026
What IQ Steward is.
IQ Steward is an optional part of IQ Routing for Team and Enterprise workspaces. It watches a workspace's usage through IQ and points out unusual spend, retiring models, setup gaps and unused keys. It is off until an owner of the workspace turns it on.
What it can change.
IQ Steward can set temporary limits on usage: a lighter model, fewer requests per minute, a lower budget, or a cost limit for a single request. A limit can slow requests, and a budget or a cost limit can stop a request. Limits change how much capacity is used, never who has access. IQ Steward does not remove anyone from a workspace, never sets a budget or a request rate to zero on its own, does not create, revoke or rotate keys or tokens on its own, and does not change billing, plans or seats. It does not read the text of prompts or answers, and it does not rank members.
When it acts.
For the first 14 days after an owner turns it on, IQ Steward only suggests, and an administrator decides whether to apply each suggestion. After the first 14 days, IQ Steward makes changes on its own only if automatic changes are turned on for your workspace; until then it only suggests, and an administrator decides. When automatic changes are on, the rules the workspace keeps on can set limits only for a sudden burst of cost or requests far above the usual level for that key group (groups of keys a workspace sets up, often one per team) or member, or a single request that uses far more thinking than usual. Rules that reach one member at a time run only where an administrator turns them on, in workspaces with at least 5 members, and only after 2 weeks of that member's history. When turning IQ Steward on, the owner must say whether any members work in the EU, the EEA or the UK. If the answer is yes, any limit on one person (a member, or a key group only one person used in the last 14 days) waits for an administrator to apply it, and that cannot be switched off while the answer stands. The owner can change the answer later, and each change is recorded in the workspace audit log. IQ Steward also limits itself: at most 3 automatic actions per workspace per day, at most one on the same member in 24 hours, none on the same member twice within 7 days without an administrator, a quiet period after a limit is lifted, and when many members would be affected at once, it stops acting and asks an administrator instead.
What members see.
Nothing pops up when a limit is set. A member can see every current limit on their own usage in My usage on the dashboard, whether it is set on them, their key, their key group or the whole workspace: the rule's name, what changed, when it ends, "Set by your workspace", and a link to this page. Members do not see limits set on other members. When a workspace first turns on a rule that can reach one member, its members see a one-time notice that IQ Steward is in use.
Asking for a limit to be lifted.
Each limit has a button, "Ask your admin to lift this". It sends the request to the workspace's owners and administrators, who can lift the limit at once, and the member sees when it was sent. The workspace's administrators, not IQ, decide whether to lift a limit. Every limit also ends on its own: within 24 hours for model, rate and request-cost limits, and within 7 days for budgets. Requests to lift are counted for each rule, and a rule that draws many of them can go back to only suggesting. If you think IQ Steward did not work as this page describes, contact support@iq-routing.com.
How an owner turns it off.
Owners can pause automatic actions in one step. IQ Steward then only suggests, and limits already in place stay until they end or an administrator undoes them. Each rule has its own switch, and the "Key groups only" setting stops it from ever setting limits on an individual member. Turning IQ Steward off lifts every active IQ Steward limit and puts back the earlier settings, unless an administrator changed them since. If a workspace leaves the Team or Enterprise plan, IQ Steward's active limits are lifted.
What is logged.
IQ Steward records each finding, suggestion, action, undo, expiry, lift and request to lift, with the time, the rule, the key group or member it applies to, the setting before and after, and who acted. Automatic actions are recorded as made by "IQ Steward"; an administrator's actions are recorded under their name. Owners see these entries in the workspace audit log. Members see only the limits on their own usage. IQ Steward's findings and actions are kept for up to 13 months; audit-log entries follow the audit-log retention in our Privacy Policy. If the workspace has webhooks, IQ Steward also sends events about suggestions and actions to them, without prompt or answer text.
Your privacy rights.
See our Privacy Policy, Sections 3a, 5 and 9, or contact support@iq-routing.com.