Limits & System Behavior

Reliai always surfaces system limits so operators understand what they are seeing.

Types of limits

Ingest limits

Traces may be dropped when ingest volume exceeds capacity.

Shown as: "Dropping ~X traces/min"

When this is active, you are seeing a sample of system activity, not all of it.

API rate limits

Requests may be blocked when rate limits are reached.

Shown as: "Blocked X requests in last minute"

Sampling

Some traces are not stored when sampling is active. This gives you partial visibility into the full trace population.

Shown as: "Sampling active"

Processing delays

Analysis may be queued during high load. Root cause and pattern analysis will appear once processing completes.

Shown as: "Queued — generation is delayed"

Storage limits

Trace history may be truncated when storage is near capacity.

Shown as usage: "X used / Y limit traces"

Partial data signals

When system state is degraded, you may see inline indicators:

• Sampling active — some traces are not stored
• Payload truncated — some fields are incomplete
• Processing delayed — analysis is queued
• Rate limited — some data may be delayed or dropped

These mean the system is degraded but operational. Core functionality continues. Investigation may be limited.

Where limits are surfaced

• Global banner — active when a limit affects the current view
• Inline indicators — on specific data panels when partial data is shown
• Incident context — noted when evidence is derived from sampled data

Recovery

When a limit clears:

• a recovery banner is shown briefly (~1–2 minutes)
• data resumes at full fidelity
• queued analysis completes automatically

You do not need to take action when a limit clears.

Important

Reliai always tells you when:

• data is incomplete
• analysis is delayed
• limits affect what you are seeing

If no limit indicator is shown, data is complete and analysis is current.