apple-notes-rate-limits

# Apple Notes Rate Limits ## Overview Apple Notes has no formal API rate limits like cloud services do. However, there are practical throughput limits imposed by three systems: the Apple Events IPC bridge (osascript to Notes.app), the iCloud sync daemon (`bird`/`cloudd`) that must process each write, and the Notes.app SQLite database that handles concurrent access. Exceeding these practical limits causes timeouts (-1712), sync lag, or data loss when writes outpace iCloud's upload buffer. This guide documents safe operation rates and provides throttling patterns. ## Practical Rate Limits | Operation | Safe Rate | Bottleneck | Exceeding Limit | |-----------|----------|------------|-----------------| | Create note | 1/second | iCloud sync buffer | Sync lag; notes missing on other devices | | Read note (name/body) | 10/second | Apple Events IPC | -1712 timeout errors | | Search (`.whose()`) | 2/second | Notes.app indexer | UI freeze; timeout | | Move note between folders | 1/second | iCloud + local DB | Folder state inconsistency | | Delete note | 1/second | iCloud delete propagation | Deleted notes reappear | | Bulk list (all notes) | 1/10 seconds | Memory + IPC | Process killed by macOS | | Attachment operations | 1/5 seconds | File I/O + sync | Corrupt or missing attachments | ## Throttled Operation Queue ```typescript // src/rate-limit/throttle.ts import { execSync } from "child_process"; interface ThrottleConfig { minDelayMs: number; maxRetries: number; backoffM...