Rate Limiting
Rate limiting controls allowed requests or costly actions for one identity, key, or time window.
Another example
After many failed sign-in tries, new tries slow down. A real user can still use account recovery.
Main parts
- 01Identity or input
- 02Policy or transformation
- 03Stored result and audit evidence
Use it when
Use visible quotas to reduce abuse, brute-force attacks, and overload by mistake.
Do not use it when
Never use one global limit that unfairly blocks shared networks or critical callbacks.
Name used in code
429 Too Many Requests Before you ship
Check contracts and invariants, authorization, and input limits. Test retries, one-time effects, timeouts, and partial failures. Verify data integrity, compatibility, monitoring, recovery, and rollback.
Outcome: Design or review Rate Limiting for this system while keeping data correct, secure, and easy to operate. User context: After many failed sign-in tries, new tries slow down. A real user can still use account recovery. Technical concept or control: Rate Limiting. Why it fits: Use visible quotas to reduce abuse, brute-force attacks, and overload by mistake. Do not use it when: Never use one global limit that unfairly blocks shared networks or critical callbacks. Engineering requirements: Define inputs, outputs, contracts, and rules that must always hold. Set authorization and input checks. Define failures, timeouts, retries, one-time effects, data moves, and compatibility limits. Operations: Add useful signals and logs that hide sensitive data. Set capacity limits and write an operator guide. Test recovery and rollback. Acceptance criteria: Contract and failure-path tests pass. Data and authorization rules still hold during retries and partial failures. Check performance limits, monitoring, recovery, and rollback. Evidence and limits (evidence boundary): No single official standard controls the whole term. Its meaning may change across teams, platforms, or frameworks. Unknowns to confirm: Where the code runs, data stores, traffic shape, consistency needs, and the security boundary. Also confirm the compatibility period, service goals, and rollback limits.
Check this request
Review the current use of Rate Limiting. Definition: Rate limiting controls allowed requests or costly actions for one identity, key, or time window. Release checks: Check contracts and invariants, authorization, and input limits. Test retries, one-time effects, timeouts, and partial failures. Verify data integrity, compatibility, monitoring, recovery, and rollback. Before changing code, report the evidence you found, gaps, severity, and the smallest safe fix.