> ## Documentation Index
>
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://lithi.ai/llms.txt
>
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

---
title: Work keys and management access
description: >-
  Submitting work and administering an account are separate systems with
  separate credentials. Learn the split, the five work tools an agent can
  call, and the management lifecycle.
route: /docs/compute/concepts/work-and-management
page_id: docs-compute-concepts-work-and-management
page_type: concept
content_layer: guided documentation
surface_profile: guided_docs
audience: Organization admins and anyone handing a key to an automated caller
voice: D
reader_question: Why can my work key not change my account or pay an invoice?
primary_action: Review what your key can do
source_locale: en-US
source_status: APPROVED
source_version: docs-compute-concepts-work-and-management-en-us-2026-09-05-v1
last_updated: '2026-09-05'
robots: index
claim_registry_pinned: true
claim_registry_resync: "npm run governed:tsx -- scripts/build-compute-public-claim-registry.ts --write"
---

## Two families, one account

Compute exposes two API families. They share your account and share nothing else.

| Property | Work API | Management API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Purpose | Quote, run, batch, status, result | Organization and projects, members and roles, identities and keys, sources and destinations, profiles and rubrics, schedules and webhooks, finance and invoices, audit and receipts |
| Authentication | A bounded personal, service, or automation work key | A human portal session, or a separately admitted management service identity |
| Surface | REST, SDK, CLI, and exactly five MCP tools | REST, SDK, CLI, and the portal |

## Why a work key cannot administer anything

A work key holds six work scopes. Management scopes are never mintable on one, so no setting turns a work key into an administrative one.

The practical effect is worth stating plainly. A key that leaks, or an agent that goes further than you meant, can spend inside bounds you already approved. It cannot register a destination, mint another key, change spend authority, or touch an invoice.

Finance, destination, and identity administration stay disjoint from work submission by design. That separation is the reason a work key is safe to hand to an automated caller in the first place.

## The five work tools

An agent connected over MCP gets exactly five tools. There is never a sixth.

- `lithi.quote` — price a task. It authorizes nothing.
- `lithi.run` — submit one approved task.
- `lithi.batch` — submit many items as a single unit.
- `lithi.status` — read the current state of a job.
- `lithi.result` — fetch the finished result bundle.

`lithi.plan()` and `lithi.recommend()` are local helpers. They neither quote, admit, nor run paid work, and they are not part of that set.

## The management lifecycle

Every management resource family follows the same steps, from your organization record through to audit and receipts.

1. **Describe** — read what the resource type supports.
2. **Inspect** — read the current state.
3. **Plan** — produce the change as a reviewable plan with a digest.
4. **Approve** — where your organization requires approval for that change.
5. **Apply** — execute the approved plan.
6. **Read back** — confirm the applied state from the record, not from the response.
7. **Events** — follow what happened afterwards.
8. **Revoke** — withdraw the grant once it is no longer needed.

Re-applying an identical change returns its earlier verified result rather than doing the work twice. The exact operations each family supports are listed in the [management API reference](/docs/compute/reference/management-api).

"Rollback" means applying a new plan. It never means undoing an invitation that was sent, an external write that landed, or a payment that moved.

## Where the boundary shows in the namespace

```text
lithi.work.quote/run/batch/status/result
lithi.identities/api_keys/approvals/spend
lithi.data.sources/destinations
lithi.finance.mappings/cost_allocation/statements/invoices/payments/reconciliation
```

Only the first line is reachable with a work key. The invoice and payment family has no debit operation at all. It lists, exports, opens a hosted payment action, and reads status back.

## Check your own key

Roles decide what a person can plan and approve; scopes decide what a key can submit: [scopes and roles](/docs/compute/access/scopes-and-roles).