carry a retry-after timestamp honor it

Not specified by the original author.

TL;DR

429 means you are over Brave's per-second or monthly query cap. Read the Retry-After response header, back off, and reduce your request rate. If you keep hitting it at low rates, the key is on the wrong plan or shared across too many callers.

brave search api 429 rate limit exceeded

Use this when

• The Brave Search API returns HTTP 429 on search requests.
• You see rate limit exceeded in the error body.
• A crawl or agent loop hammers the API in a tight loop.

Not for this skill when

• The status is 401 or 403. Those are auth and plan problems, not rate problems.
• The 429 comes from a different API. Each provider's headers differ.

Steps

1. Capture one full response: status, body, and headers. Verify: you can see the exact plan message, not just the code.
2. Read the Retry-After header and wait that many seconds before retrying. Verify: the retry returns 200.
3. Add exponential backoff in your client: sleep 1s, 2s, 4s up to 60s on each 429. Verify: a burst of 20 queries completes without a second 429.
4. Cap concurrency: one in-flight request at a time per key, with at least 1s between calls on the free tier. Verify: sustained traffic stays under the limit.
5. If 429s persist at one request per second, check the plan dashboard for monthly quota. Verify: usage is under the plan cap; if it is over, upgrade the plan or give each caller its own key.

Variant phrasings

brave api rate limit

Same handling, shorter query.

429 brave search

Short form of the same error.

brave search quota exceeded

The monthly-cap variant of the same error.

Compatibility: Brave Search API v1 (api.search.brave.com). Free tier caps are per-second and monthly; paid tiers raise both.

Why it happens

Brave enforces two limits: a burst limit (requests per second) and a monthly quota. Tight retry loops and parallel workers burn through the burst limit instantly, and shared keys across developers burn the monthly quota. The 429 is the API telling you to slow down, not a bug to route around.

Edge cases / pitfalls

• Retrying immediately on 429 doubles the load and extends the block. Always honor Retry-After first.
• Keys shared across a team hit the quota with no single heavy caller. Give each service its own key.
• Cache repeated queries locally. Search results for the same query rarely change minute to minute.

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_4cAGTAz2mk3Uh9jxNyMVOg

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_4cAGTAz2mk3Uh9jxNyMVOg

Thread query: brave search api 429 rate limit exceeded

TL;DR: 429 means you are over Brave's per-second or monthly query cap. Read the Retry-After response header, back off, and reduce your request rate. If you keep hitting it at low rates, the key is on the wrong plan or shared across too many callers.

Not specified by the original author.

When your Workato API calls start 429ing, read the retry-after header and wait until that timestamp instead of guessing a backoff. The header reflects the actual policy window. A retry-after far in the future means you hit the longer usage quota, not the per-minute rate limit, so stop hammering and schedule the work later.

Context: Official docs (API access policies): documents that when a client exceeds a rate limit or usage quota, the server returns 429 and the response includes a retry-after header indicating the timestamp of the next valid request. There are two quota types: short-window rate limits and longer usage quotas.

Matched source

Source: Published skill Original query: "Workato API 429s carry a retry-after timestamp, honor it" Key terms: 429s, after, carry, honor, retry, timestamp, workato

Source: Official docs (API access policies): documents that when a client exceeds a rate limit or usage quota, the server returns 429 and the response includes a retry-after header indicating the timestamp of the next valid request. There are two quota types: short-window rate limits and longer usage quotas.

Verified resolution: When your Workato API calls start 429ing, read the retry-after header and wait until that timestamp instead of guessing a backoff. The header reflects the actual policy window. A retry-after far in the future means you hit the longer usage quota, not the per-minute rate limit, so stop hammering and schedule the work later.

Source URL: https://docs.workato.com/api-mgmt/api-access-policies.html

Not specified by the original author.

TL;DR

Sleep ~1.1s and retry with backoff instead of declaring the key dead. - Use a cross-process lock if multiple processes or threads can search, so pacing holds globally. - Log the remaining monthly quota (response header X-RateLimit-Remaining) after each call. Read that line before concluding the key is exhausted. - If 429s survive retries, the month's quota is spent; wait for the reset or upgrade rather than hammering. Brave Search API free tier: 1 request/second, 2,000/month.

Fix

1. Sleep ~1.1s and retry with backoff instead of declaring the key dead. - Use a cross-process lock if multiple processes or threads can search, so pacing holds globally. - Log the remaining monthly quota (response header X-RateLimit-Remaining) after each call. Expected: You get the expected result; the problem is gone.

2. Read that line before concluding the key is exhausted. - If 429s survive retries, the month's quota is spent; wait for the reset or upgrade rather than hammering. Expected: You get the expected result; the problem is gone.

3. Rate-limit headers (X-RateLimit-Limit, X-RateLimit-Remaining, X-RateLimit-Reset) are your pacing source of truth; use X-RateLimit-Reset for the backoff instead of guessing. Expected: You get the expected result; the problem is gone.

When to use

• You are setting up or using this Brave Search API free tier feature.
• The symptom matches: 1 req/sec, so serialize calls and retry 429s.

When NOT to use

• Unrelated Brave Search API free tier issues (different feature, different failure).
• You need general documentation for the tool; check the official docs instead.

Compatibility

Reported against Brave Search API free tier.

Variant phrasings

1 req/sec, so serialize calls and retry 429s

Why it happens

Web (agent-config brave-search SKILL.md): the Brave Search API free plan allows 1 request per second and 2,000 requests per month. The documented rule: never issue calls in parallel; one query at a time. The reference implementation paces requests through a cross-process lock and retries 429 with backoff, so concurrent invocations serialize to ~1.1s apiece instead of failing. Every run prints the remaining monthly quota (e.g. "monthly quota remaining: 1965/2000"); read that line before concluding the key is exhausted, because a 429 at 1 rps is pacing, not quota exhaustion.

Edge cases

• If your error message differs even slightly, this is probably a different issue; search the exact text.
• If the fix does not help, capture the full error output and check the source link for updates.

Web (agent-config brave-search SKILL.md): the Brave Search API free plan allows 1 request per second and 2,000 requests per month. The documented rule: never issue calls in parallel; one query at a time. The reference implementation paces requests through a cross-process lock and retries 429 with backoff, so concurrent invocations serialize to ~1.1s apiece instead of failing. Every run prints the remaining monthly quota (e.g. "monthly quota remaining: 1965/2000"); read that line before concluding the key is exhausted, because a 429 at 1 rps is pacing, not quota exhaustion. Resolved: Brave Search API free tier: 1 request/second, 2,000/month. Treat these as hard rules: - Never run searches in parallel. One query at a time; refine from the result before issuing the next. - A 429 on the free plan usually means you exceeded 1 rps, not that the monthly quota is gone. Sleep ~1.1s and retry with backoff instead of declaring the key dead. - Use a cross-process lock if multiple processes or threads can search, so pacing holds globally. - Log the remaining monthly quota (response header X-RateLimit-Remaining) after each call. Read that line before concluding the key is exhausted. - If 429s survive retries, the month's quota is spent; wait for the reset or upgrade rather than hammering. Rate-limit headers (X-RateLimit-Limit, X-RateLimit-Remaining, X-RateLimit-Reset) are your paci Source: https://github.com/junghan0611/agent-config/blob/HEAD/skills/brave-search/SKILL.md