JAX-RS guide · Java SDK

JAX-RS rate limiting,registered as one Feature.

Register the ReqKey Feature. Every request is checked against the caller’s key, charged against their credits, and held to their plan’s limit before your resource method runs.

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  • Keys issued per customer
  • Credits that refill
  • Limits per plan, not per process

Official SDKs with drop-in middleware for the stack you already run

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API requests validated
100M+
Average key validation
<5ms
Average analytics ingest
<5ms
Check and log, end to end
<10ms

The usual JAX-RS rate limiter counts requests. It doesn’t know your customers.

JAX-RS apps usually write a ContainerRequestFilter around a token-bucket library, aborting with a 429 Response when a bucket is empty.

With a ContainerRequestFiltertoday
  • Buckets live in one JVM
  • Keyed by IP address by default, not by the customer who is paying
  • No API keys: issuing, hashing, scoping, and revoking them is still yours to build
  • No credit balance: a request can’t cost 5 on one route and 1 on another, or refill each month
  • One limit for everyone — no per-plan limits for Free, Pro, and Enterprise customers
  • No per-customer usage log to answer “why was I blocked?” or bill against
With ReqKey in JAX-RSone middleware
  • API keys issued per customer, prefixed, hashed, and revocable from the dashboard
  • A credit balance per customer — price each route, refill every hour, day, week, or month
  • Rate limits set per plan, shared by all of a customer’s keys, from 1 second to 24 hours
  • The same count on every worker, instance, and region — no Redis to run
  • Over the limit? A 429 with Retry-After, and no credits charged
  • Every request logged per customer — status, latency, endpoint — in under 5ms
Resources read the verdict from the request context. See the code

JAX-RS in three steps, one of them code.

ReqKey runs inside your API, not in front of it. Your server asks one question per request and gets an answer in under 5ms.

  1. 1

    Install the SDK

    implementation("com.reqkey:reqkey-jaxrs:1.0.0")

  2. 2

    Set your project key

    Copy it from the dashboard into REQKEY_PROJECT_KEY. It stays on your server.

  3. 3

    Add the JAX-RS middleware

    Every request is checked, charged, and logged before your handler runs.

PaymentsReqKeyFeature.javaimplementation("com.reqkey:reqkey-jaxrs:1.0.0")
import com.reqkey.ReqKeyConfig;
import com.reqkey.jaxrs.ReqKeyFeature;
import com.reqkey.middleware.KeyScheme;
import com.reqkey.middleware.ReqKeyMiddlewareConfig;
import jakarta.ws.rs.core.Feature;
import jakarta.ws.rs.core.FeatureContext;
import jakarta.ws.rs.ext.Provider;
 
@Provider
public final class PaymentsReqKeyFeature implements Feature {
    @Override
    public boolean configure(FeatureContext context) {
        ReqKeyMiddlewareConfig middleware = ReqKeyMiddlewareConfig.builder("api_payments")
                .keyName("Authorization")
                .keyScheme(KeyScheme.BEARER)
                .excludePath("/health")
                .build();
        return new ReqKeyFeature(ReqKeyConfig.fromEnvironment(), middleware)
                .configure(context);
    }
}
Also in Java: Spring Boot, Jakarta ServletFull Java reference

Every request gets one of these answers

  • 200Valid key, credits charged — your handler runs
  • 402Out of credits
  • 403Key disabled, or not allowed on this API
  • 429Over the rate limit — no credits charged

Where ReqKey sits

Your customer
Your APIReqKey, under 5ms
Your handler

Responses go straight back to your customer. ReqKey sees the key check and the log line, nothing else.

Credits

Charge each route what it costs you.

A lookup can cost 1 credit and a render 5, from the same balance. Excluded paths are never validated, charged, or recorded. In Java:

Per-route credits · Java
ReqKeyMiddlewareConfig.builder("api_images")
        // Exact paths or trailing-* prefixes: never validated, charged, or recorded
        .excludePath("/health")
        .excludePath("/docs/*")
        // Or decide per request with a predicate
        .protectWhen(request -> request.getPath().startsWith("/api/"))
        // Charge endpoints differently — a CreditResolver instead of an int
        .credits(request -> request.getMethod().equals("POST") ? 5 : 1)
        .build();

Rate limits

Set limits on plans, not in code.

Your JAX-RS code never hard-codes a number. Each plan carries its credits, refill, and rate limit; moving a customer to Pro changes all three with no deploy.

PlanCreditsRate limit
Free1,000 / month5 req / s
Pro50,000 / month50 req / s
Scale1,000,000 / month500 req / s
429Over the limit, a call is answered with Retry-After and costs nothing — no credits and no quota.

Example plans. You name them and pick the numbers.

Notes for JAX-RS teams hit in production.

A standard Feature

Annotate with @Provider and it’s discovered by Jersey, RESTEasy, or any Jakarta REST 3.1 runtime.

Bearer keys

keyScheme(KeyScheme.BEARER) reads Authorization: Bearer — what most API clients send.

Quarkus and Helidon

Both build on Jakarta REST, so a Feature is the natural way in.

JAX-RS rate limiting: the questions teams ask.

Something else? Ask the team or read the docs.

  • Any Jakarta REST 3.1 implementation — Jersey and RESTEasy included.

  • Yes — pass a credits resolver on ReqKeyMiddlewareConfig.

  • On their plan or on the customer (consumer) in ReqKey — a number of requests per window from 1 second to 24 hours, shared by all of that customer’s keys. Your JAX-RS code never hard-codes a limit, so upgrading a customer is a dashboard change, not a deploy.

  • A check averages under 5ms. ReqKey runs inside your app as middleware, not as a gateway in front of it, so responses go straight back to your customer.

  • You choose: fail closed and answer 503, or fail open and let requests through. Invalid keys are denied either way, and a validation is never retried, so no one is charged twice.

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