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: Hyperledger
providerId: hyperledger
created: '2026-05-04'
# Provenance stamped 2026-08-11: this artifact was written by the API Evangelist
# bulk sweep dated 2026-05-04, not harvested from the provider. See roadmap#35.
method: generated
modified: '2026-05-05'
reconciled: true
tags:
  - Rate Limiting
  - Blockchain
  - Open Source
description: Hyperledger projects are self-hosted open-source software; there are no foundation-imposed
  request quotas. Operational throughput is bounded by node configuration, consensus algorithm,
  and underlying network/storage rather than a vendor-imposed rate-limit policy. Each framework
  exposes operator-configurable throttling controls (Fabric endorsement policies, Besu --rpc-http-max-active-connections,
  Firefly orchestrator backpressure). Managed offerings sold by ecosystem vendors apply their own
  service-specific limits.
notes: Documented limits are protocol or implementation defaults, not vendor-enforced quotas. Adopters
  size their own infrastructure and set throttling at the deployment layer.
sources:
  - https://besu.hyperledger.org/public-networks/reference/api
  - https://hyperledger-fabric.readthedocs.io/
  - https://hyperledger.github.io/firefly/latest/reference/api/
limits:
  - name: Hyperledger Besu - JSON-RPC HTTP active connections
    scope: node
    metric: concurrent_connections
    limit: 80
    notes: Default --rpc-http-max-active-connections; configurable per-node.
  - name: Hyperledger Besu - JSON-RPC WebSocket active connections
    scope: node
    metric: concurrent_connections
    limit: 80
    notes: Default --rpc-ws-max-active-connections; configurable per-node.
  - name: Hyperledger Fabric - peer concurrent gRPC streams
    scope: peer
    metric: concurrent_streams
    limit: operator-configured
    notes: Configured via core.yaml peer.keepalive and peer.maxRecvMsgSize parameters; no foundation-imposed
      ceiling.
  - name: Hyperledger Fabric - block size
    scope: ordering-service
    metric: bytes_per_block
    limit: 10485760
    notes: Default PreferredMaxBytes 512KB / AbsoluteMaxBytes 10MB at the orderer; configurable per
      channel.
  - name: Hyperledger Firefly - orchestration throughput
    scope: node
    metric: tx_per_second
    limit: implementation-dependent
    notes: Bounded by underlying blockchain protocol throughput and Firefly node sizing.
policies:
  - name: Self-Hosted Throttling
    description: Operators set rate limits at the ingress layer (NGINX, Envoy, API gateway) since
      Hyperledger frameworks rarely ship with built-in per-client RPM throttling.
  - name: Consensus Backpressure
    description: Throughput is gated by consensus mechanism (Raft, IBFT 2.0, QBFT, BFT). Excessive
      load causes block-time degradation rather than 429-style throttling.
  - name: Vendor Service Limits
    description: Managed offerings (IBM Blockchain, AWS Managed Blockchain, Kaleido) impose their
      own rate limits, request quotas, and SLAs. Consult vendor docs for those specifics; the foundation
      itself does not.
  - name: Endorsement Policy
    description: In Fabric, endorsement policies and concurrency are controlled at the chaincode
      and channel level rather than via API rate limits.
maintainers:
  - FN: Kin Lane
    email: kin@apievangelist.com