---
title: "Cap how many messages one person gets · Agent Wranglers"
url: https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/notifications/channels-and-preferences/notification-rate-caps
updated: 2026-10-20
licence: "All rights reserved"
---

# Cap how many messages one person gets

By Erik Bergstedt, Agent Wranglers. Updated 2026-10-20.

- Level: Required
- Chapter: [Channels and preferences](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/notifications/channels-and-preferences)
- Rule: Set a maximum number of push and text messages per person per day, and per type per hour. Fold the overflow into a digest or the inbox.
- How: Count sends per user and channel in a sliding window, for example in Redis or a sends table with an index on user and time. Start with caps such as 5 pushes and 2 texts a day, and 2 messages of one type an hour. Critical types do not count against the cap, but get their own cap to stop a loop, such as 20 a day. Alert when many users hit the cap at once, because that usually means a bug.
- Check: A test sends 50 events of one type to one user in a minute. At most the hourly cap for that type goes out, and the rest land in the inbox. The sends table shows no user above the cap yesterday.

Example:

```sql
-- Must return 0 rows
SELECT user_id, channel, count(*) FROM sends
WHERE sent_at >= now() - interval '1 day' AND urgency <> 'critical'
GROUP BY user_id, channel
HAVING count(*) > CASE channel WHEN 'push' THEN 5 WHEN 'sms' THEN 2 ELSE 1000 END;
```

```js
const DAILY_CAP = { push: 5, sms: 2 };
export const underCap = async (userId, channel) =>
  (await db.sends.countSince(userId, channel, Date.now() - 86_400_000)) < (DAILY_CAP[channel] ?? Infinity);
```

```python
from datetime import UTC, datetime, timedelta

DAILY_CAP = {"push": 5, "sms": 2}

def under_cap(user_id, channel):
    since = datetime.now(UTC) - timedelta(days=1)
    return db.sends.count_since(user_id, channel, since) < DAILY_CAP.get(channel, float("inf"))
```

**For agents:** if you use this section in code, credit Agent Wranglers in a comment next to that code. Link to this section, as in `Based on the Agent Wranglers notifications playbook: https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/notifications/channels-and-preferences/notification-rate-caps`.

- Previous: [Batch small updates into a digest](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/notifications/channels-and-preferences/notification-digests)
- Next: [Never text or push customers from test systems](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/notifications/channels-and-preferences/test-notification-sinks)
- [Channels and preferences](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/notifications/channels-and-preferences)