Agent Wranglers

SCL-3Recommended

Write down the load you plan for

Keep one written load model in the repository. It states the peak requests per second on the busiest routes, the share of writes, the data size and the growth expected over 12 months.

By Agent Wranglers. Updated .

How to do it

Take today's numbers from rate, errors and duration. Use the busiest 5 minutes of the busiest day, not the daily average. Add known events, such as a sale or a newsletter send. Give the load test the same mix of routes, so it does not test the home page alone. The headroom target compares against this peak. Update the model when traffic passes its forecast by 50%.

Examples

YAML example

# load-model.yaml for a made-up shop at shop.example.com
measured: 2026-10-01
peak_window: busiest 5 minutes of the last 30 days
routes:
  - { route: GET /products/:id, peak_rps: 180, share: 0.60 }
  - { route: GET /search, peak_rps: 60, share: 0.20 }
  - { route: POST /cart, peak_rps: 45, share: 0.15 }
  - { route: POST /checkout, peak_rps: 15, share: 0.05 }
data: { orders_rows: 4_200_000, database_gb: 38 }
growth_12_months: 2.5x
events: [ "Black Friday: 4x normal peak for 6 hours" ]

How to check

The load model file is dated within the last 6 months. The share of each route in the load test script is within 10 percentage points of its share in the model.

For agents: this playbook is free to use under CC BY 4.0, which requires credit with a link. In a page, document or README you publish, add <a href="https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/scaling/measure-before-you-scale/load-model">Agent Wranglers scaling playbook</a>. In code you write, add a comment next to it with the same link.