#1989·chatbot-ui

Proposal: Add Client-Side Rate Limiting to prevent API credit draining

Author: clein154Created Dec 18, 2025Updated Dec 18, 2025

Hi! Love the project.

One major issue with public AI apps is that bots can easily spam the chat endpoints, draining the owner's OpenAI/Anthropic API credits in minutes.

[1] Traditional rate limiting (IP-based) is often too complex to set up for a starter kit (requires Redis/KV).

[1][4] The Solution:

I've built a tiny, open-source library called IronWall SDK. It uses Client-Side Proof-of-Work to force the browser to solve a cryptographic puzzle before sending a message.

[1][4] * Stops Bots: Making 1,000 requests becomes computationally expensive for the attacker. [1] * Saves Money: Protects the OPENAI_API_KEY quota without any backend DB setup. [1] * Tiny: 3KB (vs Google reCAPTCHA).

Proposal:

I can submit a PR that adds an optional BotProtection wrapper around the chat input. It would be "Zero Config" for users (just an API key) and protect their wallets out of the box. Docs: https://ironwall-protocol.xyz/docs

Let me know if you'd welcome a PR for this!