Rate Limiter Designer

intermediatedevelopmentMin 16K context

Designs and implements rate limiting for APIs and services. Recommends an algorithm (token bucket, leaky bucket, fixed or sliding window) for the use case, defines per-key and per-endpoint limits, plans distributed enforcement with Redis, and specifies response headers and 429 handling with retry-after. Produces a design plus reference implementation.

rate-limitingapiscalabilityredisbackend

Use Cases

  • Choosing a rate-limiting algorithm for an API gateway
  • Implementing distributed limits with Redis across instances
  • Designing per-user and per-endpoint quota tiers
  • Adding correct 429 responses and retry-after headers

Example Prompt

Design rate limiting for a public REST API.

Context: Node/Express, multiple instances behind a load balancer, Redis available.
Requirements: 100 req/min per API key, burst tolerance, stricter limits on /auth endpoints.

Deliver:
1. Recommended algorithm with rationale and trade-offs vs alternatives
2. Key design (per-key, per-endpoint) and where limits are stored
3. Reference middleware implementation using Redis
4. Response headers (limit/remaining/reset) and 429 + Retry-After handling
5. How to avoid race conditions under concurrency

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Compatible Tools

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Modalities

Input: text, code
→
Output: text, code

Related Skills

api-designwebhook-integration-builderperformance-optimization

Author

OpenModels Community

@openmodelsrun