IBM Engineering AI Hub licensing lifecycle

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Licensing in IBM® Engineering AI Hub follows a predictable and cyclical behavior that ensures continuous entitlement validation and resource management. This cycle is integrated with the Engineering AI Hub supervisor agent and the IBM Common Licensing Server.

  1. Startup

    When the IBM Engineering AI Hub server starts, the supervisor agent checks out four Engineering AI Hub licenses. Two licenses enable the server. Of the remaining two licenses, one is used by agents and one is used by MCP tools to consume the first work unit block. To monitor the usage metrics of the agents and MCP tools, go to Engineering AI Hub console. For more information, see Administering Engineering AI Hub.

  2. Request Handling

    As requests arrive to the supervisor agent, it increments the work unit counter and routes each request to the appropriate endpoint.

  3. License Renewal

    When the current work unit block is exhausted and the counter reaches its entitlement, the supervisor agent checks out another Engineering AI Hub license. This license provides entitlement for the next work unit block.

  4. Continuous Operation

    Step 2 and Step 3 repeat throughout the 24-hour period.

  5. Daily Reset

    At the end of the 24-hour period, licenses time out in the IBM Common Licensing Server, and the cycle restarts from Step 1: Startup.