---
title: "Keep headroom · Agent Wranglers"
url: https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/operations/capacity-and-cost/headroom
updated: 2026-10-20
licence: "All rights reserved"
---

# Keep headroom

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

- Level: Required
- Chapter: [Capacity and cost](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/operations/capacity-and-cost)
- Rule: Keep normal peak load well below the tested limit, so a spike or a lost server does not break the service.
- How: Plan for peak traffic plus the loss of one server or zone. Grow capacity before the peak reaches a set share of the limit, such as 60%. Autoscaling helps, but set a maximum so a bug cannot run up the bill. Take the tested limit from a [load test](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/testing/non-functional-tests/load-tests). This rule measures load, such as requests per second or CPU.
- Check: Last month's peak load is below the agreed share of the tested limit. The autoscaling maximum is set.

**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 operations playbook: https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/operations/capacity-and-cost/headroom`.

- Next: [Turn work away before overload](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/operations/capacity-and-cost/load-shedding)
- [Capacity and cost](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/operations/capacity-and-cost)