Fireflies.ai Performance Tuning

Overview

Optimize Fireflies.ai GraphQL API performance. The biggest wins: request only needed fields (transcripts with sentences can be very large), cache immutable transcripts, and batch operations within rate limits.

Prerequisites

• FIREFLIESAPIKEY configured
• Understanding of your access pattern (list vs detail, frequency)
• Optional: Redis or LRU cache library

Instructions

Step 1: Field Selection -- The Biggest Win

Transcript responses with sentences can be enormous. Always request the minimum fields needed.

// BAD: Fetching everything when you only need titles
const HEAVY = `{ transcripts(limit: 50) {
  id title date duration sentences { text speaker_name start_time end_time }
  summary { overview action_items keywords outline bullet_gist }
  analytics { speakers { name duration word_count } }
} }`;

// GOOD: Light query for listing
const LIGHT = `{ transcripts(limit: 50) {
  id title date duration organizer_email
} }`;

// GOOD: Full query only when drilling into a specific transcript
const DETAIL = `query($id: String!) { transcript(id: $id) {
  id title
  sentences { speaker_name text start_time end_time }
  summary { overview action_items keywords }
} }`;

Step 2: Cache Transcripts (They Are Immutable)

Once a transcript is processed, its content never changes. Cache aggressively.

import { LRUCache } from "lru-cache";

const transcriptCache = new LRUCache<string, any>({
  max: 500,
  ttl: 1000 * 60 * 60, // 1 hour -- transcripts are immutable
});

async function getCachedTranscript(id: string) {
  const cached = transcriptCache.get(id);
  if (cached) return cached;

  const data = await firefliesQuery(`
    query($id: String!) {
      transcript(id: $id) {
        id title date duration
        speakers { name }
        sentences { speaker_name text start_time end_time }
        summary { overview action_items keywords }
      }
    }
  `, { id });

  transcriptCache.set(id, data.transcript);
  return data.transcript;
}

Step 3: Redis Cache for Multi-Instance Deployments

import Redis from "ioredis";

const redis = new Redis(process.env.REDIS_URL!);
const CACHE_TTL = 3600; // 1 hour in seconds

async function getTranscriptCached(id: string) {
  const cacheKey = `fireflies:transcript:${id}`;

  // Check cache
  const cached = await redis.get(cacheKey);
  if (cached) return JSON.parse(cached);

  // Fetch from API
  const data = await firefliesQuery(`
    query($id: String!) {
      transcript(id: $id) {
        id title date duration
        sentences { speaker_name text start_time end_time }
        summary { overview action_items keywords }
      }
    }
  `, { id });

  // Cache the result
  await redis.set(cacheKey, JSON.stringify(data.transcript), "EX", CACHE_TTL);
  return data.transcript;
}

Step 4: Batch Processing with Rate Limit Awareness

import PQueue from "p-queue";

// Business plan: 60 req/min. Safe rate: 1 req/sec with headroom.
const queue = new PQueue({
  concurrency: 1,
  interval: 1100,
  intervalCap: 1,
});

async function batchFetchTranscripts(ids: string[]) {
  console.log(`Fetching ${ids.length} transcripts (rate-limited)...`);

  const results = await Promise.all(
    ids.map(id => queue.add(() => getCachedTranscript(id)))
  );

  const cacheHits = ids.filter(id => transcriptCache.has(id)).length;
  console.log(`Done. Cache hits: ${cacheHits}/${ids.length}`);
  return results;
}

Step 5: Warm Cache on Webhook Events

// When a transcript completes, pre-cache it immediately
async function onWebhookEvent(event: { meetingId: string; eventType: string }) {
  if (event.eventType === "Transcription completed") {
    // Pre-warm the cache so future reads are instant
    await getCachedTranscript(event.meetingId);
    console.log(`Pre-cached transcript: ${event.meetingId}`);
  }
}

Step 6: Pagination for Large Result Sets

async function getAllTranscripts(batchSize = 50) {
  const allTranscripts: any[] = [];
  let hasMore = true;
  let offset = 0;

  while (hasMore) {
    const data = await firefliesQuery(`
      query($limit: Int, $skip: Int) {
        transcripts(limit: $limit, skip: $skip) {
          id title date duration
        }
      }
    `, { limit: batchSize, skip: offset });

    allTranscripts.push(...data.transcripts);

    if (data.transcripts.length < batchSize) {
      hasMore = false;
    } else {
      offset += batchSize;
      // Rate limit: wait between pages
      await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, 1100));
    }
  }

  return allTranscripts;
}

Performance Benchmarks

Error Handling

Output

• Field-optimized GraphQL queries (light list, full detail)
• LRU and Redis caching for immutable transcripts
• Rate-limited batch processor
• Webhook-driven cache warming

Resources

• Fireflies API Docs
• lru-cache
• p-queue

Next Steps

For cost optimization, see fireflies-cost-tuning.