# Missing Backpressure

> A defect in which a system accepts work faster than it can process it, with no limit or shedding.

Record: `architecture:missing-backpressure`
Kind: anti-pattern
Layer: [Enforcement Core](https://banes-lab.com/records/layer/enforcement-core.md)
Severity: discouraged
Scope: resilience_recovery
Aliases: Unbounded Ingestion
Canonical: https://banes-lab.com/ontology#architecture-missing-backpressure

Listed in [Architecture principles](https://banes-lab.com/api/records/architecture.md), after [Timeout Omission](https://banes-lab.com/records/architecture/timeout-omission.md) and before [Silent Data Corruption](https://banes-lab.com/records/architecture/silent-data-corruption.md).

## Repair

- Refactored by: bounded_queue, rate_limit, load_shed, apply_backpressure_signal
- Detected by: unbounded_queue, no_rate_limit, no_admission_control, memory_grows_with_load
- Violated by: Accept work faster than the system can process it without queue limits, admission control, rate limits, or shedding.
- Measured by: queue depth and memory growth under load
- Enforced by: load tests, checks that every queue is configured with a bound

## Severity

- [discouraged](https://banes-lab.com/records/vocabulary/severity-discouraged.md)

## Category

- [Anti-patterns](https://banes-lab.com/records/architecture-category/anti-patterns.md)

## Force

- [Resilience recovery](https://banes-lab.com/records/force/resilience-recovery.md)

## Negated by

- [Backpressure](https://banes-lab.com/records/architecture/backpressure.md)

## Linked from

- [Above one tier, reduction](https://banes-lab.com/software-architecture/scale/above-one-tier-reduction.md)
- [Anti-patterns](https://banes-lab.com/ontology/principles/architecture-category-anti-patterns.md)
- [Error Handling / Resilience](https://banes-lab.com/ontology/principles/architecture-category-error-handling-resilience.md)
- [Severity levels](https://banes-lab.com/ontology/schema/the-vocabulary-severity.md)
- [The forces](https://banes-lab.com/ontology/schema/the-forces.md)