Bitbucket API throwing 429 too many request error

[Hari Poturi]

We are integrating Bitbucket with Backstage IDP. As part of Backstage IDP we added metadata catalog-info.yaml file to few(~60) repos and enabled bitbucket integration in Backstage. The Backstage use the Bitbucket API to sync these metadata files from each repo. This is scheduled event and we configured to run for every 2 hours. We want to understand what is the API rate limit for our account and how can we solve this 4.29 too many request error permanently.

[Ben]

Hi @Hari Poturi 

Your API rate limit will depend on how you're authenticating:

• If you are authenticating via a user account with an API token/AppPassword - the limit is the default 1,000 requests/hour per user account
• If you're using an access token (ie workspace/repository/project access token) , however, the limit is 8,370/hour per token - this is because your workspace has a large number of users and therefore qualifies for scaled rate limits

My suggestion, given the very high number of API calls that are being made - is to switch fully to access tokens:

• Using access tokens does not consume a license seat, and does not increase your billing as a result (vs creating another user account)
• You can create multiple access tokens and benefit from the scaled limit on a per-token basis - meaning if, for example, you had 2 tokens and load balanced requests equally amongst them - this would give you a total of 16,740 requests/hour (8,370/hour per token)

If you need further information - please let me know your timezone so I can raise a ticket on your behalf (given that you have a paid workspace), as it would not be appropriate for us to share personal details related to your workspace/users on a public forum such as community.

Cheers!

- Ben (Bitbucket Cloud Support)