api-rate-limit-policy Skill (samber): Rate Limits for a Public API

Makes Claude design the rate limits your public API publishes: tiers, fairness, response headers, 429 handling and enterprise overrides.

Installs: 9.6K; on skills.sh
Stars: 9; on GitHub
Files: 5; besides SKILL.md
Updated: Nov 2026; last repo commit

api-rate-limit-policy makes Claude design the rate-limit policy your API publishes to developers. It covers how to meter (request counts for REST, cost points for GraphQL), tier and burst numbers, fairness between tenants, headers, the 429 response, override paths and change notices.

It starts when you mention rate limits, quotas, throttling tiers, 429 responses, noisy neighbors or limit-increase requests. Claude asks 8 opening questions, then works through 7 steps. SKILL.md says it covers policy only, not gateway configuration.

Good for

API product managers setting free, pro and enterprise limits
Platform engineers handling a noisy neighbor
Teams deciding which rate-limit headers to return

Install api-rate-limit-policy

Claude Code

Copy this prompt.

Install the api-rate-limit-policy skill in Claude Code. Run this command:

/plugin marketplace add samber/developer-platform-skills
/plugin install developer-platform-skills@developer-platform-skills

Then check that it loaded and tell me how to use it.

2
Paste it into Claude Code. It shows the change and asks before running it.

Pick one route, not both, or you get every skill twice. The README asks you to install the whole set, not just api-rate-limit-policy, because the skills reference each other and a lone skill leaves those hand-offs with nowhere to go. The plugin adds all 61 skills in the repo (counted from the repo tree). Its manifests list no hooks, agents or MCP servers.

From the project README. Source.

What's in the skill

When it loads

Design the rate-limit policy a public API publishes to its consumers - the metering model per paradigm (REST request counting vs GraphQL cost points), tier and quota-vs-burst numbers, multi-tenant fairness, rate-limit headers (legacy X-RateLimit-* vs IETF RateLimit fields), 429 and Retry-After behavior, enterprise and partner overrides, and change-notice rules. Use whenever the user mentions rate limits, quotas, throttling tiers, 429 responses, noisy neighbors, or limit-increase requests - even if they never say "rate-limit policy". Policy layer only, not gateway configuration. Do NOT use for the 429 error envelope - use samber/developer-platform-skills@api-error-design instead.

Sections in SKILL.md

Clarifying questions
Consumer tiers
Workflow
1. Pick the metering model
2. Design tiers: two numbers, keyed deliberately
3. Layer fairness and tenant isolation
4. Choose the header family
5. Design the throttle response
6. Define the enterprise/partner override path
7. Write the change-notice policy
Failure modes
Measurement
Invocation examples
References

Key facts

Author: Samuel Berthe
License: MIT
Version: 1.0.1
Installs on skills.sh: 9,582 (Nov 2, 2026)
GitHub stars: 9 (Nov 2, 2026)
skills.sh audits: Gen Agent Trust Hub pass; Socket pass; Snyk pass (Nov 2, 2026)
Last repo commit: Nov 1, 2026
What installs: 6 files including SKILL.md: evals/evals.json and 4 reference files. It bundles no scripts.
Needs: The other skills in the repo; the README says to install the whole set
Works in: Claude Code, Claude.ai, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, and other agents through the skills CLI

What it includes

Asks 8 questions in one batch before designing anything.
Try: “Design rate-limit tiers for our public REST API - we have free, pro, and enterprise plans, and enterprise keeps asking for higher limits.”
Opening questions
Counts requests for REST and cost points for GraphQL, never a blend.
Pick the metering model
Sets two numbers per tier, quota and burst, keyed on a deliberate identity.
Design tiers
Adds a tenant ceiling, a per-user limit and a carve-out for expensive endpoints.
Layer fairness and tenant isolation
Defaults to the X-RateLimit-* trio; adds IETF fields only alongside it.
Choose the header family
Returns 429 with a Retry-After header in delay-seconds.
Design the throttle response
Documents how big accounts get higher limits and through whom.
Define the enterprise and partner override path
Sets how much notice limit changes get, scaled to who is affected.
Write the change-notice policy
Advises saving decisions to developer-platform-context.md when memory is a file.
Write · Remember decisions (optional)

From the official docs

Permissions

Low risk

This skill is written advice that bundles no scripts. The one thing it may write is a decisions file, so check what Claude saves.

What it can do

Read your data
Create and change things
Delete things
Read-only mode

Watch out for

It may save decisions to a file
SKILL.md advises using developer-platform-context.md when memory lives in a file, and calls it an advisory reference. Check or delete that file if you do not want decisions kept. github.com
The plugin route adds all 61 skills
The README asks you to install every skill in the repo, and the repo has 61. The plugin manifests list no hooks, agents or MCP servers, and the repo tree holds none. github.com
Folder holds Markdown and one JSON file
This skill's folder has 6 files: SKILL.md, evals/evals.json and 4 reference files. It has no .py, .sh or .js file. github.com

Security advisories

No published security advisories as of Nov 2, 2026.

Technical details

Turning on read-only	No read-only setting is documented. Decline the memory-file suggestion if you want no files written.
Scopes	Asks you opening questions and works from your answers and anything you share, such as specs or docs May save settled decisions to a file named developer-platform-context.md if your memory lives in a file

Questions

How do I install api-rate-limit-policy?

Use the install box above. The README asks you to install all 61 skills in the repo, not just this one, because the skills point to each other. In Claude Code that is the plugin route, and elsewhere the skills CLI or the client's own route installs the set.

Does api-rate-limit-policy work in Claude.ai, Codex or Cursor?

The README documents installs for Claude.ai, Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and Gemini CLI. It also lists the skills CLI, which it calls universal for Agent Skills-compatible tools. The Claude.ai route adds the whole repo as a plugin marketplace.

Does it need an API key or any setup?

SKILL.md sets no environment variable and the folder bundles no scripts. It does ask for details of your own API or product in its opening questions.

Is api-rate-limit-policy safe to use?

The folder holds Markdown and one JSON file, and no scripts. SKILL.md does suggest saving settled decisions to developer-platform-context.md when your memory lives in a file, so check what Claude writes. Our advice: treat the design it produces as a draft for your team to review before you publish it.

api-rate-limit-policy vs api-error-design?

This skill sets the numbers, headers and the 429 policy. SKILL.md sends the 429 error envelope, meaning the shape of the error body, to api-error-design.

Which rate-limit headers does it recommend?

The default is the legacy X-RateLimit-Limit, Remaining and Reset trio, because most clients already parse it. It adds the newer IETF RateLimit fields only alongside the legacy ones, and it drops IETF fields alone from the menu because they would break existing clients.

Information

updated Nov 2, 2026

Repository: samber/developer-platform-skills
Folder: skills/api-rate-limit-policy

samber/developer-platform-skills skills.sh

Sources

Docs, issue trackers and discussions this page is built from.

Show all 6

README · github.com
api-rate-limit-policy SKILL.md · github.com
api-rate-limit-policy folder · github.com
api-error-design SKILL.md · github.com
marketplace.json · github.com
plugin.json · github.com