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backpressure
When the consumer is slow, the producer must slow down or shed. An unbounded queue is a delayed outage.
What is backpressure?
Backpressure propagates “I am full” toward the sender. Bounded queues, blocked writes, or 429s. Without it, producers keep accepting work the system cannot do, and memory grows until the process dies.
Why does backpressure matter when vibe coding?
Models add a queue “so spikes are fine” and leave it unbounded. The spike becomes a backlog that takes down the box hours later. Name the bound and the behavior when it is hit.
How do you do backpressure?
Bound every queue. When full: reject, or block the producer, on purpose. Measure depth. A growing depth is the page, not a badge.
How do you ask a model for backpressure?
Bound the queue for (work). When it is full, reject new work with a clear error. Do not grow memory without a limit. Expose queue depth.
What goes wrong with backpressure?
Dropping the oldest job silently. You applied pressure by losing the one task someone is waiting on. Say which end drops, and tell the caller.