# OPS-134 — The registry has API rate limits of its own

> Integrations must stay within the registry's published API rate limits.

- **Rule ID:** OPS-134
- **Layer:** Operational (`OPERATIONAL`)
- **Checks:** `API request rate to the registry`
- **Severity:** MEDIUM — Usually survives review, but lowers your trust score or invites manual review.
- **When it bites:** Falls due after approval, once you are live and sending
- **How it is detected:** External record we cannot query — reported as a warning to verify
- **Fix type:** Wait on an external system or a required interval
- **Required by:** TCR
- **Applies:** Applies to every 10DLC registration.
- **Canonical URL:** https://ekas.io/rules/10dlc/operational/ops-134/

## Why this rule exists

A polling integration built without regard to the limits will hit them during exactly the operations that matter — a bulk registration, a status reconciliation after an outage — and the failures look like registry problems rather than client ones. The fix is architectural rather than a retry, which is why it belongs before the integration is written.

## How to fix it

Back off on rate-limit responses, and replace polling with the status webhooks the registry publishes. Done when a bulk operation completes without a single rate-limit error.

## Check this yourself

**Does your platform poll the registry for status, rather than consuming its webhooks?**

1. Ask, or read the integration. Most poll, and it is the usual cause.
2. Back off on rate-limit responses and replace polling with the published status webhooks.
3. Done when a bulk operation completes without a single rate-limit error.

*What wrong looks like:* The limits are hit during exactly the operations that matter — a bulk registration, a reconciliation after an outage — and the failures read as registry problems rather than client ones.

## Notes

Integration behaviour at the registry. What the user has to establish is whether their platform polls — most do, and it is the usual cause. OPS-347 covers the webhook alternative.