How to add retry logic and rate limiting to a Node BFF with Alova

Node.js Backend-for-Frontend (BFF) services that proxy to downstream APIs can break when partners return 429 or 503 errors, exposing users to failures. A common manual retry approach introduces risks like retry storms, thundering herds, and inaccurate per-process counters in multi-instance deployments. The alova/server library addresses these issues through two dedicated hooks — retry and createRateLimiter — that attach resilience logic directly to request definitions. The retry hook supports configurable attempts, exponential backoff, and jitter to prevent synchronized retries across fleet instances. createRateLimiter tracks inbound request budgets by key such as IP or user ID, rejecting excess calls with a 429 before they ever reach the downstream service.