Scry API Replaces Hard Rate Limits with Congestion-Based Pricing for AI Agents

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Scry is a programmable search API designed for AI agents that substitutes traditional hard rate limits with a congestion pricing model, where query costs rise under high load and fall when demand eases. Instead of receiving a 429 error upon hitting a quota, agents receive a dynamic price signal and can choose to proceed, defer, or cancel a query based on cost. The API provides access to over 164 billion rows of indexed internet data spanning sources like Reddit, arXiv, Wikipedia, and Stack Exchange, queried via SQL-like syntax. Unlike fixed token-bucket systems, Scry functions as a spot market for query capacity, requiring agents or their orchestrators to implement cost-aware decision logic and budget management. When multiple agents share a billing account, the platform does not enforce an arbitration model, placing the responsibility on developers to prevent budget exhaustion or priority conflicts.

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ProgrammingDEV Community ·

Developer fixes AI agent that executed questions and negations as commands

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