How to Handle API Rate Limits Before They Break Your Production Integration
javascript
dev.to
You didn't hit an API rate limit because you missed the docs — you hit it because the free tier worked perfectly in testing, and nobody told you about the burst limit you'd blow through on your first real batch. The Problem The integration looked perfect. You built it against the sandbox, validated every edge case, and shipped it to production. Then real users arrived. Within hours, your logs filled with 429 errors. Jobs failed silently. User-facing features went dark. Your support