ChatBot EnhancedInstall

Overview

The ChatBot Enhanced node provides advanced chatbot functionalities with integrated Redis support, focusing on rate limiting, session management, message buffering/routing, and analytics. Specifically, the Rate Limiting - Check Rate Limit operation verifies if a user or session is within allowed request limits per minute, helping to prevent abuse or overload by enforcing usage quotas.

This node is beneficial in scenarios where you want to:

• Protect chatbot services from excessive requests by individual users.
• Implement fair usage policies for API calls or chatbot interactions.
• Monitor and control traffic bursts with burst protection and penalty mechanisms.

Example use case:
A chatbot deployed on a website uses this node to ensure each visitor can only send up to 10 messages per minute. If a user exceeds this limit, further messages are blocked or delayed, preventing spam and server overload.

Properties

Output

The node outputs two main streams:

1. Main output: Contains success or processed results with details such as:

   • Whether the request was allowed or blocked.
   • Current request count, remaining quota, reset time, and retry-after duration.
   • Original message content and session ID.
   • Operation type identifier (smartRateLimit).

2. Status output: Provides error information or metrics including:

   • Error details if processing fails.
   • Metrics about rate limiting performance, e.g., total requests, remaining requests, window utilization percentage.
   • Redis connection health status.

The json output structure includes fields like:

{
  "type": "success",
  "data": {
    "message": "<original message>",
    "sessionId": "<session key>",
    "operationType": "smartRateLimit",
    "allowed": true,
    "rateLimitData": {
      "requestCount": 5,
      "remainingRequests": 5,
      "resetTime": 1680000000000,
      "retryAfter": 0
    }
  },
  "timestamp": 1680000000000
}

No binary data is produced by this operation.

Dependencies

• Redis Server: The node requires a Redis instance for storing rate limiting counters and session data.
• API Key Credential: A valid API key credential for connecting to Redis must be configured in n8n.
• RedisManager: Internal Redis client manager handles connection pooling and commands.
• RateLimiter: Implements sliding window algorithm with burst protection and penalties.

Ensure that the Redis credentials are correctly set up and the Redis server is accessible with appropriate permissions.

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

• Redis Connection Failures:
  Errors like "Redis connection failed" indicate network issues, incorrect credentials, or Redis server downtime. Verify Redis endpoint, credentials, and connectivity.

• Rate Limit Always Denied:
  If all requests are blocked, check if the Session Key is unique per user/session and not shared inadvertently, causing combined counts.

• Unexpected High Latency:
  Slow Redis responses or network delays can increase processing time. Enabling debug mode may help identify bottlenecks.

Error Messages

• "Redis connection failed: <error message>"
  Means the node could not connect to Redis. Resolve by checking credentials and Redis availability.

• "Unknown operation type: <operation>"
  Indicates an unsupported operation was requested. Confirm the selected operation matches the node's capabilities.

• "ITEM_PROCESSING_ERROR"
  An error occurred while processing a specific item. Inspect the error message for details and verify input data correctness.

Links and References

• Redis Official Documentation
• Sliding Window Rate Limiting Algorithm
• n8n Documentation - Creating Custom Nodes
• Best Practices for API Rate Limiting

If you need summaries for other resources or operations, feel free to ask!