Error Handling: recordUsage() called synchronously on every request

[Snider]

Description

The AuthenticateApiKey middleware calls recordUsage() synchronously on every authenticated request. This adds a database write to the critical path of every API call.

Location

• src/Api/Middleware/AuthenticateApiKey.php:79

The comment says non-blocking but the implementation is a synchronous database update in src/Api/Models/ApiKey.php:262-265.

Impact

1. Latency: Every API request incurs a database write
2. Database load: High-traffic APIs will hammer the database with updates
3. Failure cascade: Database slowdowns affect all API requests

Recommended Fix

1. Queue the update to a background job
2. Batch updates using cache with periodic flushes
3. Debounce with cache - only update if more than N seconds since last update

Priority

Medium - Impacts API latency and database load at scale.

[Snider]

Parent: #28

[Snider]

Target branch: epic/28-api-performance-optimisation (epic #28)

[google-labs-jules]

Jules is on it. When finished, you will see another comment and be able to review a PR.

[google-labs-jules]

Ready for a review! A PR has been created.