API Error 429: Too Many Requests

An HTTP 429: Too Many Requests error occurs when an API token is used to make too many requests to the API in a given period. Bonsai throttles the number of API calls that can be made by any given token in order to maintain a high level of service and prevent DoS scenarios.

If you are receiving an HTTP 429: Too Many Requests error, then you are hitting the API too frequently. The API documentation introduction describes which limits are in place.

Example

A call to the API that results in an HTTP 429: Too Many Requests error may look something like this:

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<pre><code fs-codehighlight-element="code" fs-copyclip-element="copy-this-2" class="hljs language-javascript">{  
  "errors": [    
    "You are making too many requests to the API.",    
    "Please read the documentation at https://docs.bonsai.io/article/308-api-error-429-too-many-requests"  
  ],  
  "status": 429
}</code></pre>
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Troubleshooting

The first step is to look at how often you are polling the API. If you're checking the API while waiting for a cluster to provision or update, then every 3-5 seconds should be adequate.

If you have an adequate amount of sleep time in between API calls, then the next thing to check would be whether you have multiple jobs checking the API using the same token. If you're using some kind of CI system to spin up and tear down clusters during testing and continuous integration, then and they all share the same token, then they're likely interfering with each other.

Note that when the API returns an HTTP 429: Too Many Requests error, it will include a header called <span class="inline-code"><pre><code>Retry-After</code></pre></span>, which indicates how many seconds you will need to wait to make your next request. So you could add in a check for this into your scripts. That way an HTTP 429 does not cause things to fail, but rather informs the necessary sleep duration in order to proceed.

If all else fails, you can always contact support and we will be glad to assist.

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