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: Dfns
providerId: dfns
created: '2026-07-01'
modified: '2026-07-01'
reconciled: false
tags:
- Wallets
- MPC
- Key Management
- Digital Assets
- Web3
- Rate Limiting
- Quotas
- Throttling
description: >-
  The Dfns API enforces per-application and per-organization rate limits to
  protect the signing and wallet infrastructure. Limits are applied per API
  path/method class and are heavier on read (list/get) endpoints than on
  sensitive mutating endpoints that require User Action Signing (transfers,
  signature generation, policy changes). Specific per-endpoint request-per-
  second/minute values are governed by the commercial agreement and are not
  publicly reconciled in this artifact.
notes: >-
  Verify concrete numeric limits, burst allowances, and any per-network
  transaction throughput caps with Dfns during reconciliation; limits vary by
  commercial tier and deployment model.
sources:
- https://docs.dfns.co/
- https://docs.dfns.co/d/api-docs/api-basics
responseCodes:
  throttled: 429
limits:
- name: Requests Per Application
  scope: application
  metric: requests
  limit: see provider documentation
  notes: Aggregate request limit per registered Dfns application, varies by tier.
- name: Requests Per Organization
  scope: organization
  metric: requests
  limit: see provider documentation
  notes: Aggregate request limit across an organization's applications and users.
- name: Signature / Transaction Throughput
  scope: organization
  metric: signatures
  limit: see provider documentation
  notes: >-
    Throughput of signing and transaction-broadcast operations; may be shaped
    per blockchain network and commercial tier.
- name: Read Endpoints
  scope: application
  metric: requests
  limit: see provider documentation
  notes: List/get endpoints (wallets, transfers, transactions, events) carry higher limits than mutating endpoints.
policies:
- name: Tiered Limits
  description: Rate limits scale with the commercial agreement and deployment model (SaaS vs. dedicated).
- name: User Action Signing Gate
  description: >-
    Sensitive mutations (transfers, signature generation, key/policy changes)
    require a User Action Signing challenge/complete flow, which naturally
    throttles automated abuse of those endpoints.
- name: Backoff Strategy
  description: Clients should implement exponential backoff with jitter and honor Retry-After on HTTP 429 responses.
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com