Shared language
Glossary and status
Terms, maturity levels, and service expectations used throughout the x429 docs.
Glossary
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Admission | The origin accepts the request instead of returning a throttle response. |
| Binding | The client key or wallet identifier that the ticket is tied to. |
| Discovery | The /.well-known/x429.json document. |
| Free lane | The guaranteed future slot that requires no payment. |
| GSLP / policy layer | A higher-level guarantee, routing, or service-level policy can reference x429 as its concrete overload coordination primitive. |
llms.txt | A concise text file that tells agents how to interpret the site and protocol. |
| MCP | Model Context Protocol. MCP servers are good pilot candidates because they are agent-facing and often experience bursty tool traffic. |
| Nonce | The single-use value that prevents replay. |
| Priority | An earlier admission class offered at a price. |
| Resource | The endpoint or logical capacity pool being scheduled. |
| Slot | The window from notBefore to notAfter. |
| Ticket breach | A valid ticket presented in-window fails to admit. This should be treated as severe. |
| x402 | The intended payment rail for real paid priority. x429 composes with it rather than replacing it. |
Maturity labels
| Label | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Working | Implemented and exercised by tests or simulator. |
| Draft | Designed and documented, but still likely to change. |
| Planned | Intended direction, not yet implemented. |
| Out of v1 | Explicitly not part of the current milestone. |
Suggested SLOs for pilots
- p99 valid-ticket verification under 10ms at the middleware layer.
- p95 free-ticket redemption admitted within 1 second of
notBefore. - 0 successful replay attempts.
- 0 successful tampered tickets.
- 0 ticket breaches in controlled load tests.