# Grant budget justification

> Draft and validate grant budgets and budget narratives (personnel, equipment, travel, indirect) against funder cost categories and caps.



Tags: Grants, Budget, Funding, Nonprofit


## Example Prompts

- Draft a budget narrative for our NSF proposal
- Validate our grant budget against a 15% indirect cap
- Check that personnel, travel, and equipment are all justified

URL: https://rakenne.app/skills/grant-budget-justification/index.md

Try this skill: https://rakenne.app/a/?skill=grant-budget-justification



## Overview

Draft and validate grant budgets and budget narratives (personnel, equipment, travel, indirect) against funder cost categories and caps.

## Getting Started

Add your budget draft (table and/or narrative) to the workspace and activate the skill. Run the validator with optional indirect cap and category caps from the call.

## Tools

- **validate_budget_caps** — Checks for standard budget categories (personnel, equipment, travel, indirect, etc.), optional indirect rate cap, and optional per-category caps. Flags over/under.

## Example conversation

> **You:** Our grant budget is in `grant/budget.md`. Validate it and check that indirect doesn't exceed 15%.
>
> **Agent:** I'll run validate_budget_caps with indirectRateCap 0.15.
>
> **Agent:** Validation: present categories include personnel, travel, indirect. Indirect rate within cap (15%). OK.
>
> **You:** Add a one-paragraph justification for travel.
>
> **Agent:** Added a travel justification paragraph to `grant/budget.md`.

## Output excerpt

Example when a cap is exceeded:

```
============================================================
Grant Budget Validation
File: grant/budget.md
============================================================

Present: personnel, equipment, travel, indirect

Indirect rate 22.5% exceeds cap 15%.

Action: Add missing categories or adjust amounts to meet caps.
```


---

Back to [Skill Library](https://rakenne.app/skills/index.md)