Limits and Runtime Guards

Current Guardrails

The server exposes guardrails for:

request payload size
key size
value size
key count in batch commands
transaction queue length
sustained request rate
burst request rate
idle connection lifetime
transaction lifetime
auth failure window and temporary lockout

Runtime Controls

Important controls include:

--max-request-payload-bytes
--max-key-bytes
--max-value-bytes
--max-keys-per-batch
--max-transaction-queue-len
--requests-per-second
--request-burst
--idle-timeout-seconds
--transaction-max-seconds
--auth-failure-window-seconds
--auth-failure-limit
--auth-lockout-seconds

These are also available through the documented VAYLIX_* environment variables for container use.

Why They Exist

These controls reduce:

accidental oversized requests
noisy-client impact
unbounded queued transaction growth
idle connection leakage
unbounded open transaction lifetime
repeated online auth guessing without delay

Maintenance Mode

Maintenance mode is a separate operational restriction:

maintenance on
maintenance off
maintenance status

When enabled, the server stays available for reads, inspection, and backup verification flows, but rejects mutating commands, restore flows, and transaction entry/commit.

What These Controls Are Not

They are not a complete abuse-defense platform.

Still missing:

global rate limits
per-user quotas
IP reputation or ban lists
distributed admission control
replication-aware backpressure