specification: API Commons Rate Limits
specificationVersion: '0.1'
schema: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/interface-research/main/schema/api-commons.yml#/$defs/RateLimits
provider: Atomic
providerId: atomic-fi
created: '2026-07-01'
modified: '2026-07-01'
reconciled: false
tags:
- Fintech
- Payroll
- Financial Connectivity
- Rate Limiting
- Quotas
- Throttling
description: >-
  Atomic does not publish specific public rate-limit numbers for its
  UserLink and PayLink APIs. Limits are applied per account/credential and
  negotiated as part of the enterprise agreement. Backend endpoints are
  authenticated with API Key + Secret and are expected to be called from a
  server, not the client. Task processing is asynchronous - work is queued
  and completion is signaled via task status and webhooks rather than
  synchronous request rate. Specific per-endpoint values are not reconciled
  in this artifact.
notes: >-
  Confirm concrete per-account limits and any burst/throttle behavior with
  Atomic during onboarding. Because tasks run asynchronously, design around
  task-status polling and webhooks instead of tight synchronous loops.
sources:
- https://docs.atomicfi.com/reference/api
- https://docs.atomicfi.com/reference/webhooks
responseCodes:
  throttled: 429
limits:
- name: Backend API Requests
  scope: account
  metric: requests
  limit: see provider agreement
  notes: Per-credential limits set by contract; API Key + Secret required.
- name: Task Processing
  scope: account
  metric: tasks
  limit: asynchronous / queued
  notes: Tasks are queued and processed async; poll status or use webhooks.
- name: Webhook Delivery
  scope: endpoint
  metric: deliveries
  limit: retried up to 3 times, 30s apart
  notes: Failed webhook deliveries are retried up to three times at 30-second intervals; manual replay available.
policies:
- name: Server-Side Credentials
  description: API Key and Secret must be used from a backend service, never exposed to client-side apps; clients use short-lived public tokens instead.
- name: Backoff Strategy
  description: Clients should implement exponential backoff with jitter and honor Retry-After on 429 responses.
- name: Async by Design
  description: Prefer webhooks (task-status-updated, payroll-data-fetched) over aggressive polling to stay within limits.
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com