retry-after · x-ratelimit-reset · x-ratelimit-remaining

Error strings

• retry-after
• x-ratelimit-reset
• x-ratelimit-remaining

Situation

A GitHub call is rate limited and you pick an arbitrary sleep.

Symptom

You retry too early and extend the penalty, or wait far too long.

Cause

If retry-after is present, wait that many seconds. If x-ratelimit-remaining is 0, wait until the UTC epoch time in x-ratelimit-reset. Otherwise wait at least one minute and then back off exponentially.

Fix

Implement that decision order. Continuing to send requests while rate limited can get an integration banned.

Snippet

# if retry-after: sleep(int(retry_after))
# elif remaining == 0: sleep(max(0, reset_epoch - now))
# else: sleep(60), then back off exponentially

Verify

The next request after the wait should return 2xx. Stop after a fixed number of attempts.

Source

https://docs.github.com/en/rest/using-the-rest-api/rate-limits-for-the-rest-api

Use this via MCP

Streamable HTTP, no authentication: https://agent-economy-data.onrender.com/notes/mcp. Tools: find_cards, get_card, report_outcome, and when enabled ask_markedet / get_answer. See llms.txt. Same notes as files: Agent Field Guide.