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: Lincoln National
providerId: lincoln-national
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: false
tags:
  - Rate Limiting
  - Annuities
  - Benefits
  - Enrollment
  - HR
  - Insurance
  - Retirement
description: Lincoln Financial does not publish public API rate-limit documentation for the LincSmart
  surface. Per-partner throttling and quota policies are configured at Lincoln's API gateway and are
  governed by the partner agreement; sandbox vs production differences must be confirmed with the Lincoln
  Financial integration team.
notes: No public rate-limit documentation found. Numeric ceilings are partner-contract driven.
sources:
  - https://www.lincolnfinancial.com/public/static/digitalbrochure/gp/lincsmart/index.html
responseCodes:
  throttled: 429
  serviceUnavailable: 503
limits:
  - name: Partner API Limit
    scope: api-key
    metric: varies
    limit: see partner agreement
    notes: Per-second / per-day ceilings are not published; refer to your LincSmart partner contract.
policies:
  - name: Backoff Strategy
    description: Clients should implement exponential backoff with jitter and honor Retry-After when
      returned by the gateway.
  - name: Real-time Sync vs Batch
    description: LincSmart enrollment supports real-time sync of elections; bulk / annual-enrollment
      windows may require coordinated throughput, not unbounded throttle.
maintainers:
  - FN: Kin Lane
    email: kin@apievangelist.com