An administrator may wish to limit the number of tuples that may be spawned as a result of a first tuple entering an operator graph. A first stream operator may receive a first tuple in order to perform an operation on the first tuple to generate a second tuple. The first stream operator may determine whether it is permitted to generate the second tuple by comparing the first tuple's tuple spawn counts to a tuple creation policy. If the first stream operator is permitted to generate the second tuple, the first stream operator may perform the operation on the first tuple and generate the second tuple.