hapi-rate-limiter

A Hapi plugin that enables rate-limiting for GET, POST, and DELETE requests. This plugin can be configured with custom rates on a route-by-route basis.

To use with Hapi >= v17 you should install hapi-rate-limiter@v4. To use with Hapi <= v16 you should install hapi-rate-limiter@v3.

Register the plugin

const Bluebird = require('bluebird');
const Hapi     = require('@hapi/hapi');
const Redis    = require('redis');

// Note: Sadly, this package currently requires a promisified Redis client
// Luckily, any package appending *Async methods should work, not just Bluebird
Bluebird.promisifyAll(Redis.RedisClient.prototype);
Bluebird.promisifyAll(Redis.Multi.prototype);

const Server = new Hapi.Server({ port: 80 });

const RedisClient = Redis.createClient({
  port: '6379',
  host: 'localhost'
});

const defaultRate = {
  limit: 10,
  window: 60
};

await server.register({
  plugin: require('hapi-rate-limiter'),
  options: {
    defaultRate: (request) => defaultRate,
    key: (request) => request.auth.credentials.apiKey,
    redisClient: RedisClient,
    overLimitError: (rate) => new Error(`Rate Limit Exceeded - try again in ${rate.window} seconds`),
    onRedisError: (err) => console.log(err),
    timer: (ms) => console.log(`Rate Limit Latency - ${ms} milliseconds`)
  }
});

Options

The following options are required for the plugin to work properly: (defaultRate, key, redisClient, overLimitError).

The keyPrefix option is optional and defaults to: (request) => request.route.method + ':' + request.route.path;.

Rate-limiting is by default disabled on all routes, unless enabled=true in the route plugin settings.

defaultRate

Function that accepts a Request object and returns:

{
  limit: # of max requests allows within window (integer)
  window: # of seconds before count resets (integer)
}

This is used if there is no rate function defined in the route plugin settings.

key

A function that returns a key for a given request. This can be any differentiating value in each request, such as an API Key, IP Address, etc

keyPrefix

A function that returns a prefix (string) for a given request. The keyPrefix is combined with the key to look up the rate-limiting information for a given request. By default, the rate limits are enforced on a per route basis. If you want the rate limit to apply to all routes, then return a constant value from this function.

redisClient

A promisified redis client

overLimitError

A function that is called when the rate limit is exceeded. It must return an error. It is called with an object rate that contains information about the current state of the request rate.

onRedisError

An optional function that is called when the call to the Redis client errors. It is called with the err from the Redis client.

timer

An optional function that will be called upon every rate limit request. The argument will be the time in milliseconds to perform the rate limit process.

Managing Routes

Settings for individual routes can be set while registering a route.

Custom Rate

A custom limit and window can be registered for each route. The rate key accepts a Request object and returns a rate.

const customRate = {
  limit: 20,
  window: 30
};

server.route([{
  method: 'POST',
  path: '/custom_rate_route',
  config: {
    plugins: {
      rateLimit: {
        enabled: true
        rate: (request) => customRate
      }
    },
    handler: (request) => {
      return { rate: request.plugins['hapi-rate-limiter'].rate };
    }
  }
}]);

To enable rate-limiting for a route, enabled must be true in the route plugin settings.

rate can also be defined in these settings to set a custom rate. If this is not defined, defaultRate will be used.

key and keyPrefix can also be defined in these settings to override the values set in the plugin options.

Disable Rate-Limiting for route

If plugins.rateLimit is not defined, rate-limiting is disabled for that route.

server.route([{
  method: 'POST',
  path: '/disabled_route',
  config: {
    handler: (request) => {
      return { rate: request.plugins['hapi-rate-limiter'].rate };
    }
  }
}]);

Headers

Rate-limiting information for each request is attached to the response header with the following keys:

x-rate-limit-limit: total number of requests allowed within the window

x-rate-limit-remaining: remaining number of requests allows within current window

x-rate-limit-reset: time when rate-limiter will reset (UTC seconds-since-epoch)