Why, and what was tried
The session raising this recommends: Cap concurrent CI shards, no quota change
The burst is real (86 fresh on-demand runners in the last hour, no leaked machines), but a higher cap raises the spend ceiling, and spend increases need a human yes. Capping keeps cost flat; runs just queue longer.
Tried first, unsuccessfully: Tried: checked quota (320 on-demand, 1024 spot), counted live runners (266 on-demand vCPUs, all launched today, none orphaned).
0d7db998 is parked on this.