api-rate-manager

What This Skill Does

The api-rate-manager is a critical tool for developers and power users of the OpenClaw ecosystem who frequently interact with external APIs. When executing automated workflows or high-frequency data tasks, hitting API rate limits (typically HTTP 429 'Too Many Requests' errors) can crash a script or result in data loss. This skill acts as a middleware layer that sits between your request logic and the target API. It intelligently tracks your quota usage against defined windows, automatically queues requests that would exceed those limits, and performs exponential backoff retries when necessary. By abstracting the complexity of state management and timing, it ensures that your workflows remain robust, reliable, and compliant with service provider terms of use.

Installation

Install the skill directly using the OpenClaw CLI: clawhub install openclaw/skills/skills/chenghaifeng08-creator/api-rate-manager

Use Cases

• Bulk API Processing: Ideal for data scraping or bulk analysis jobs where you need to hit an endpoint hundreds of times without getting banned.
• Multi-Service Orchestration: Coordinating calls between different services (like OpenAI and Perplexity) where each has a different rate limit threshold.
• Production-Grade Automation: Ensuring that background agents do not experience downtime during high traffic periods.
• Cost Control: Preventing accidental over-spending by capping the number of requests sent to paid APIs in a given timeframe.

Example Prompts

1. "OpenClaw, initialize a rate manager for my OpenAI integration with a limit of 50 requests per minute and handle retries automatically."
2. "Queue these 20 batch requests for the Perplexity API using the api-rate-manager so I don't trigger a 429 error."
3. "Check the status of my current rate limit management for the ClawHub API and adjust the queue size to 200."

Tips & Limitations

• Monitor Latency: While this skill prevents errors, queuing adds time to your total execution window. Ensure your application logic accounts for this potential delay.
• API-Specifics: Always check your provider's specific 'reset' header requirements. While this skill is flexible, some APIs require specific headers to be passed back to determine the exact reset time.
• Configuration: Always set a conservative maxRetries value (default is 5) to ensure your agent doesn't enter an infinite loop in the event of an extended service outage.