limit is not respected in the response for the list_quotes function

[yiweny]

Describe the bug

from polygon import RESTClient
from dataclasses import asdict

client = RESTClient()

date = "2025-06-12"

quotes = [asdict(q) for q in client.list_quotes("AAPL", limit=1)]

print(f"Number of quotes: {len(quotes)}")

will run infinitely because the next_url will always be returned as part of the http response regardless of the limit and we will always iterate to the next page when the response contains next_url
To Reproduce

Expected behavior
This code currently runs infinitely.
Because the code always paginate when there's next_url

            if "next_url" in decoded:

Screenshots

Additional context

[justinpolygon]

Hey @yiweny, thanks for reporting this. You're right that the limit parameter isn't working the way you might expect in this case. The reason is that the list_quotes function, like most of the list_* methods in our Python client, automatically paginates in the background. If the API response includes a next_url, the client continues fetching and appending results for you. This is intended to make it easier for users who are trying to retrieve full datasets without managing pagination manually.

You can see this behavior in action if you enable debug mode on the client:

client = RESTClient(trace=True)

When enabled, debug mode prints the API calls happening for each request, including thins like the request/response headers:

Request URL: https://api.polygon.io/v2/aggs/ticker/TSLA/range/1/minute/2023-08-01/2023-08-01?limit=50000
Request Headers: {'Authorization': 'Bearer REDACTED', 'Accept-Encoding': 'gzip', 'User-Agent': 'Polygon.io PythonClient/1.12.4'}
Response Headers: {...}

This can be helpful for understanding how the client is behaving under the hood. If you're only looking for a single quote or the most recent one, you can use get_last_quote instead. You can also filter and narrow the result set using additional parameters like timestamp greater than or less than, or order. These options are described in the quotes API docs.

I know this probably isn't the answer you were hoping for, but hopefully that helps clarify the reasoning behind the behavior. We’ve talked internally about adding an optional flag to allow users to explicitly disable automatic pagination on a per-call basis. That would let you use limit exactly as intended without pulling additional pages. We don’t have that in place today, but it’s something we’re considering. In the meantime, I’ll add a note to the README to better explain how the pagination works behind the scenes.

[justinpolygon]

Hey @yiweny, thanks again for surfacing this. We just released v1.15.0, where we’ve introduced a new top-level pagination flag in the RESTClient constructor. If you set pagination=False, the client will not auto-paginate, and limit will be treated as a strict cap on the number of results returned.

Here’s how to use it:

from polygon import RESTClient
from dataclasses import asdict

client = RESTClient(api_key="YOUR_API_KEY", trace=True, pagination=False)

quotes = [asdict(q) for q in client.list_quotes("AAPL", limit=1)]

print(f"Number of quotes: {len(quotes)}")  # Should print 1

To use this, make sure you’re on the latest version of the client:

pip install -U polygon-api-client

You can read more about this behavior and how pagination is handled in the docs.

Let me know if this clears it up.