- name
- http-load-profiler
- description
- Run stepped HTTP load tests with ab/wrk, ramping concurrency levels to collect p50/p90/p99 latency, detect performance inflection points, and recommend optimal concurrency.
- license
- MIT
- type
- tool
- tags
- ["http","benchmark","performance","latency","load-testing"]
# HTTP Load Profiler — Stepped Concurrency Load Test + Inflection Point Analysis
Run stepped concurrency load tests against HTTP services, automatically collect latency percentiles, and detect performance inflection points.
## Features
- **Dual engine support**: Auto-detects wrk (preferred) or ab (Apache Bench); manual override available
- **Stepped concurrency**: Ramps up through user-defined concurrency levels (default: 1 → 10 → 50 → 100 → 200 → 500)
- **Latency percentiles**: Collects p50 / p90 / p99 latency at each level
- **Inflection point detection**: Automatically identifies four types of performance inflection points
- p99 latency accelerating (increase exceeds 2x the previous step's increase)
- Throughput efficiency dropping significantly (RPS per connection drops > 40%)
- Throughput saturated while latency spikes (RPS growth < 10%, p99 growth > 50%)
- Error rate surging (exceeds 1% and doubles from previous step)
- **Optimal concurrency recommendation**: Automatically suggests the best concurrency level based on inflection points
- **Zero Python dependencies**: Pure standard library implementation
## Quick Start
```bash
# Basic usage — run default stepped load test against target URL
python3 scripts/http_benchmark.py https://example.com/api/health
# Custom concurrency steps and duration per step
python3 scripts/http_benchmark.py https://example.com/api/health -s 5,20,50,100,300 -d 15
# Specify ab as the engine
python3 scripts/http_benchmark.py https://example.com/ -t ab
# JSON-only output (for programmatic parsing)
python3 scripts/http_benchmark.py https://example.com/api/health --json
# Use ab with a specific number of requests per step
python3 scripts/http_benchmark.py https://example.com/ -t ab -n 5000
# Save JSON report to a file
python3 scripts/http_benchmark.py https://example.com/api/health --json > report.json
```
## Parameters
| Parameter | Short | Default | Description |
|-----------|-------|---------|-------------|
| `url` | — | (required) | Target URL (http:// or https://) |
| `--steps` | `-s` | `1,10,50,100,200,500` | Concurrency steps (comma-separated positive integers) |
| `--duration` | `-d` | `10` | Duration per step in seconds (used directly by wrk; ab estimates request count from this) |
| `--requests` | `-n` | `concurrency×100` | Total requests per step when using ab |
| `--tool` | `-t` | auto-detect | Specify load testing tool: `wrk` or `ab` |
| `--threads` | — | `min(concurrency, CPU cores)` | Thread count for wrk |
| `--json` | — | `false` | Output JSON only |
## Output Format
### Human-readable (default)
```
Tool: wrk
Target URL: https://example.com/api/health
Concurrency steps: [1, 10, 50, 100, 200, 500]
Duration per step: 10s
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Conc. | RPS | Avg(ms) | P50(ms) | P90(ms) | P99(ms) | Errors | Inflection
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 | 245.3 | 4.1 | 3.8 | 5.2 | 8.1 | 0.00% |
10 | 2301.5 | 4.3 | 4.0 | 5.8 | 9.3 | 0.00% |
50 | 9876.2 | 5.1 | 4.6 | 7.2 | 12.5 | 0.00% |
100 | 14523.1 | 6.9 | 5.8 | 10.3 | 22.7 | 0.00% |
200 | 15102.3 | 13.2 | 10.1 | 22.5 | 58.3 | 0.12% | ◀
500 | 14890.5 | 33.6 | 28.3 | 55.2 | 132.1 | 1.35% | ◀
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Inflection point analysis:
▶ Concurrency 200:
- p99 latency accelerating: 22.7ms → 58.3ms (increase 35.6ms, previous step increase 10.2ms)
- Throughput saturated with latency spike: RPS grew only 3.9% while p99 latency grew 156.8%
▶ Concurrency 500:
- Error rate surging: 0.12% → 1.35%
Recommended optimal concurrency: 100
```
### JSON format (`--json`)
```json
{
"url": "https://example.com/api/health",
"tool": "wrk",
"duration_per_step": 10,
"steps": [
{
"concurrency": 1,
"rps": 245.3,
"avg_latency_ms": 4.1,
"p50_ms": 3.8,
"p90_ms": 5.2,
"p99_ms": 8.1,
"total_requests": 2453,
"errors": 0
}
],
"inflection_points": [
{
"concurrency": 200,
"step_index": 4,
"reasons": ["p99 latency accelerating: ..."]
}
],
"recommended_concurrency": 100
}
```
## Prerequisites
At least one of wrk or ab must be installed:
```bash
# Ubuntu / Debian
sudo apt-get install wrk # recommended
sudo apt-get install apache2-utils # ab
# macOS
brew install wrk
# ab is pre-installed on macOS
```
## Inflection Point Detection Algorithm
For each concurrency level, the following metrics are compared against the two preceding levels:
1. **p99 latency acceleration**: Triggers when the current p99 increase exceeds 2x the previous step's increase
2. **Throughput efficiency**: Triggers when RPS per connection drops > 40% from the previous step
3. **Saturation detection**: Triggers when RPS growth < 10% while p99 growth > 50%
4. **Error rate**: Triggers when rate exceeds 1% and doubles from the previous step
**Recommended optimal concurrency**: The concurrency level one step before the first inflection point. If no inflection point is found, the level with the highest RPS is selected.
## Important Notes
- Load testing generates real traffic against the target service — do not run against production services without authorization
- wrk provides more accurate latency percentiles than ab (wrk uses HdrHistogram)
- ab does not support a duration parameter; the script approximates timing via total request count
- A minimum of 10 seconds per step is recommended for stable results
## Activation Triggers
Triggered by requests like 'load test this URL', 'benchmark my API', 'find the max concurrency', or mentions of p99 latency, throughput saturation, or capacity planning.
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