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The gateway now ships in the praisonai-bot package. praisonai serve gateway still works exactly as documented here; for a standalone install see praisonai-bot Migration.
Flow control bounds per-session inboxes and disconnects slow consumers so a single misbehaving client can’t degrade the whole gateway.
from praisonaiagents import Agent, GatewayConfig

agent = Agent(
    name="assistant",
    instructions="You help users with tasks",
)
# Flow control is enabled by default — 256-message inbox, 1 MB buffer ceiling
The user sends bursts of messages; per-client inbox and outbound byte limits queue, drop, or close connections before the agent is overwhelmed.

Quick Start

1

Defaults work out of the box

Flow control is enabled by default — no configuration needed. Every session gets a 256-message inbox and the gateway disconnects clients whose transport buffer exceeds 1 MB or whose outbound frame queue exceeds 1000 frames.
from praisonaiagents import Agent, GatewayConfig

agent = Agent(
    name="assistant",
    instructions="You help users with tasks"
)
2

Tune the limits

Adjust thresholds to match your workload.
from praisonaiagents import Agent, GatewayConfig, SessionConfig

config = GatewayConfig(
    max_buffered_bytes=4 * 1024 * 1024,
    max_queued_frames=2000,            # NEW: frame-count ceiling
    session_config=SessionConfig(
        max_inbox=512,
    )
)

agent = Agent(
    name="assistant",
    instructions="You help users with tasks"
)

How It Works

Two checks protect the gateway from overload: A frame is rejected when either ceiling would be exceeded, or a single frame already exceeds max_buffered_bytes on its own.
Event typeWhen buffer is full
presenceSilently dropped
typingSilently dropped
statusSilently dropped
All other typesConnection closed with code 1013

Configuration Options

OptionTypeDefaultDescription
max_inboxint256Maximum queued messages per session. 0 = unlimited. Negative values raise ValueError.
max_buffered_bytesint1048576Maximum buffered bytes before a slow consumer is disconnected. 0 = disable the byte ceiling. Negative values raise ValueError.
max_queued_framesint1000Maximum queued outbound frames per client. 0 = unlimited frame count (byte ceiling still applies). Negative values raise ValueError.
max_inbox is set on SessionConfig; max_buffered_bytes and max_queued_frames are set on GatewayConfig.
from praisonaiagents import GatewayConfig, SessionConfig

config = GatewayConfig(
    max_buffered_bytes=1024 * 1024,
    max_queued_frames=1000,
    session_config=SessionConfig(
        max_inbox=256,
    )
)
These options are also available in gateway.yaml:
gateway:
  max_buffered_bytes: 1048576
  max_queued_frames: 1000      # frame-count ceiling
  session_config:
    max_inbox: 256

Client-Side Error Contract

When the inbox is full, the gateway sends this JSON frame before rejecting the message:
{
  "type": "error",
  "code": "inbox_full",
  "message": "Message queue is full. Please wait for current messages to be processed."
}
When either transport ceiling is exceeded for a critical event, the gateway closes the WebSocket with:
  • Code: 1013 (Try Again Later)
  • Reason: "slow_consumer" (the value of GatewayCloseCode.SLOW_CONSUMER)
Use the typed enum from Python clients:
from praisonaiagents.gateway import GatewayCloseCode

if close.reason == GatewayCloseCode.SLOW_CONSUMER.value:
    # reconnect and resume from the last known message
    ...
Clients should reconnect and resume from the last known message. The gateway preserves session state during the resume_window (default 24 h), so conversation context is not lost.

Common Patterns

Chat-heavy workloads — Tighten the inbox to shed load early and fail fast:
from praisonaiagents import GatewayConfig, SessionConfig

config = GatewayConfig(
    max_buffered_bytes=512 * 1024,
    session_config=SessionConfig(max_inbox=64)
)
Long-running tools — Loosen both limits to avoid spurious disconnections during slow AI responses:
from praisonaiagents import GatewayConfig, SessionConfig

config = GatewayConfig(
    max_buffered_bytes=8 * 1024 * 1024,
    session_config=SessionConfig(max_inbox=1024)
)
Stream-heavy workloads — Lower max_queued_frames to shed load on backpressure earlier:
from praisonaiagents import GatewayConfig

config = GatewayConfig(
    max_buffered_bytes=4 * 1024 * 1024,
    max_queued_frames=200,           # eager eviction for chatty streams
)
Local development — Disable slow-consumer checks so network hiccups don’t interrupt debugging:
from praisonaiagents import GatewayConfig, SessionConfig

config = GatewayConfig(
    max_buffered_bytes=0,
    session_config=SessionConfig(max_inbox=0)
)

Best Practices

An unlimited inbox (max_inbox=0) lets a slow or malicious client queue messages indefinitely, eventually exhausting gateway memory. Reserve it for local testing only.
A typical chat message is a few kilobytes. Set max_buffered_bytes to at least 10× your largest expected event payload. For file-transfer or streaming use cases, increase to 4–8 MB.
When your client receives {"code": "inbox_full"}, pause new sends and retry with exponential backoff (e.g., 1 s → 2 s → 4 s). Do not flood the gateway with immediate retries.
On receiving WebSocket close code 1013 with reason "slow_consumer", reconnect after a short delay and replay any messages that were in-flight. The gateway preserves session state during the resume_window (default 24 h), so conversation context is not lost.
Set max_queued_frames=0 to bound only by bytes (good for large but infrequent payloads); set max_buffered_bytes=0 to bound only by frame count.

Flow control bounds outbound send throughput and per-session inbox depth. For bounding inbound concurrent agent runs across all users, see Admission Control.

Gateway Admission Control

Bound concurrent inbound agent runs with a fair queue and overflow policy

Gateway

Full gateway configuration and YAML reference

Gateway Error Handling

Error handling patterns for the gateway

Gateway Rate Limit

Bound inbound turns per identity/scope — the inbound admission-side counterpart