Agent Tollbooth

You're mid-task. Your agent fires a Yahoo Finance request. Gets a 429. Stops. You don't know if it's rate limits, a bad endpoint, a missing header, or just bad luck. You try again. Same thing. You start debugging blind.

Tollbooth is the field notes that stop this from happening twice. Observed operating profiles for 16 external services — safe endpoints, sleep intervals, caching patterns, auth requirements — built from real API friction. Your agent checks the profile before calling, follows the safe pattern, and logs what happens. Next time it already knows.

Every external service has a threshold. This skill provides the map so agents learn them once and stop hitting them twice.

Core Pattern

Before calling any external service:

1. Check references/profiles.md for an existing profile
2. Follow its safe pattern — endpoint, sleep, cache, auth
3. If no profile exists, observe behavior and add an entry after

Caching

Always cache prices and API responses locally when TTL allows.