Fosowl/agenticSeek · warning · RateLimitError

Rate limit exceeded. Please wait before making more requests

Error message

Rate limit exceeded. Please wait before making more requests.

What it means

dsk_deepseek catches RateLimitError from the deepseek4free API and re-raises 'Rate limit exceeded. Please wait before making more requests.' The free unofficial endpoint throttles request frequency, and this fires when you exceed that allowance.

Source

Thrown at sources/llm_provider.py:500

            RateLimitError,
            NetworkError,
            CloudflareError,
            APIError
        )
        thought = ""
        message = '\n---\n'.join([f"{msg['role']}: {msg['content']}" for msg in history])

        try:
            api = DeepSeekAPI(self.api_key)
            chat_id = api.create_chat_session()
            for chunk in api.chat_completion(chat_id, message):
                if chunk['type'] == 'text':
                    thought += chunk['content']
            return thought
        except AuthenticationError as e:
            raise AuthenticationError("Authentication failed. Please check your token.") from e
        except RateLimitError as e:
            raise RateLimitError("Rate limit exceeded. Please wait before making more requests.") from e
        except CloudflareError as e:
            raise CloudflareError(f"Cloudflare protection encountered: {str(e)}") from e
        except NetworkError as e:
            raise NetworkError("Network error occurred. Check your internet connection.") from e
        except APIError as e:
            raise APIError(f"API error occurred: {str(e)}") from e
        return None

    def litellm_fn(self, history, verbose=False):
        """
        Use LiteLLM AI gateway for completion.
        Routes to 100+ providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Azure, Bedrock,
        Vertex AI, Groq, Together, Ollama, etc.) based on model prefix.
        See https://docs.litellm.ai/docs/providers
        """
        try:
            import litellm
        except ImportError as e:

View on GitHub (pinned to ae57a23577)

Solutions

Wait (e.g. 60s or longer) before retrying; use exponential backoff on RateLimitError
Reduce request frequency / add rate limiting in your application loop
Use a different token or upgrade to an official DeepSeek API key for higher limits
Catch RateLimitError explicitly and queue/schedule the request instead of failing hard

Example fix

// before
for h in histories:
    out = provider.generate(h)  # hammers API, RateLimitError
// after
import time
for h in histories:
    try:
        out = provider.generate(h)
    except RateLimitError:
        time.sleep(60)
        out = provider.generate(h)

Defensive patterns

Strategy: retry

Try / catch

import time
def call_with_backoff(fn, attempts=4):
    for i in range(attempts):
        try:
            return fn()
        except RateLimitError:
            if i == attempts - 1:
                raise
            time.sleep(2 ** i * 30)

Prevention

Add exponential backoff on RateLimitError instead of failing
Throttle generation loops to stay under the free-tier quota
Avoid sharing one free token across many workers/scripts
Consider an official DeepSeek API key for production workloads

When it happens

Trigger: Calling dsk_deepseek too frequently — api.create_chat_session() or api.chat_completion raises RateLimitError because the token/IP exceeded the backend's request quota or per-minute throttle.

Common situations: Tight loops generating many completions; multiple workers/scripts sharing one free token; automated test suites hitting the API repeatedly; shared free-tier capacity exhausted at peak times.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of Fosowl/agenticSeek@ae57a23577 (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b0056d6ac4a23284. Report an issue: GitHub.