APIs & Connections
$definerate-limit--plain-english
TLDRA bouncer that says you asked too many times.
A 429 is not you breaking the internet. It is the API saying you asked too fast.
A rate limit caps how many requests you may fire in a window of time. Every vendor has one. It stops one client — or one runaway agent — from eating the kitchen. The number lives in their docs. It is not a mystery.
Why demo day hits it
A human clicks. An agent in a loop can fire a hundred calls before you look up. The CLI retrying a failed deploy. A page that refetches on every keystroke. Same 429.
Fixes that actually work:
Sometimes the limit is the plan. Free tiers are slow on purpose. That is a checkout, not a bug.
Build your own cap too
If you expose an endpoint on the public internet, put a limit on it. Judges mash refresh. Bots mash harder. A missing cap is how a weekend project becomes a surprise invoice.
Do not confuse this with CORS. CORS is the browser asking permission. A rate limit is the server saying "later." Your frontend should show a calm "try again" — not a stack trace.
What this unlocks
A 429 is a pause, not a funeral.
Slow down, batch, cache. Spend the quota on the demo, not the loop.
