How is the number of slots computed?

Have you noticed the slot number on the lobstr.io app home page and wondered what it means?



In this help article, we'll cover:

What is a slot?
How is the total number of slots computed?

What is a slot?

When you access your list of Squids on lobstr.io, you'll see:

A list of your Squids
The number of slots associated with each Squid



But why do some Squids have more than one slot?

This is related to the concurrency setting, which you can adjust in the Settings section of each Squid.



The number of slots per Squid is equal to the concurrency setting for that Squid.

In other words:

Concurrency = Slots

The concurrency setting determines the number of scrapers that will be launched simultaneously to process your tasks. Increasing concurrency boosts speed by spawning multiple scrapers at once, with each scraper tackling one task from your bucket of tasks.

How is the total number of slots computed?

The total number of slots is the sum of the slots (or concurrency levels) of all your Squids.

For example, suppose you have 5 Squids:

Squid A with concurrency 1 (i.e., 1 slot)
Squid B with concurrency 4 (i.e., 4 slots)
Squid C with concurrency 1 (i.e., 1 slot)
Squid D with concurrency 1 (i.e., 1 slot)
Squid E with concurrency 4 (i.e., 4 slots)

Your total number of slots is 11 slots (1 + 4 + 1 + 1 + 4).

Updated on: 03/12/2024