The Tool Desk
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They address different problems and can be combined: bound each attempt with a timeout, retry only eligible failures within the caller’s deadline, and let a breaker stop calls when the dependency appears persistently unhealthy.
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Which control fits the failure?
| Situation | Primary control | Guardrail |
|---|---|---|
| A remote service is slow or not responding, and your caller must regain control. | Timeout | Choose it against the end-to-end latency budget and observed behavior; monitor timeout rates and latency outliers. No universal timeout value is established. |
| A failure may be temporary and another attempt could succeed. | Retry | Retry only eligible failures, only when repeating is safe, and only within a bounded attempt or elapsed-time budget. Use backoff and jitter. |
| Failures recur, the dependency is down, or its latency is causing pressure to spread. | Circuit breaker | Temporarily stop calls, fail fast or use an intentional fallback, then allow a limited recovery probe. |
| You cannot tell whether an operation completed, or repeating it could duplicate a side effect. | Do not automatically retry until repeat safety is established. | A timeout can leave completion uncertain. Check the operation’s semantics, idempotency guarantees, and the dependency’s error contract. |
| The dependency is throttling or overloaded. | Retry cautiously, if at all. | Use longer spacing, jitter, strict limits, and consider load controls. Extra attempts can deepen saturation. |
When should you set a timeout?
Set a timeout on remote calls so a slow or unresponsive dependency cannot make your application wait indefinitely. A timeout limits how long a particular attempt can occupy resources; it does not fix the dependency or establish whether the remote operation completed.
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When should you retry a failed request?
Retry only when the failure may resolve on another attempt, the operation is safe to repeat, and the request has enough remaining time. A brief network interruption, throttling response, or temporary unavailability may qualify, depending on the dependency’s contract. Permission, validation, and configuration errors generally will not be fixed by sending the same request again.
There is no universal rule for which status codes or exceptions are retryable. For example, AWS SDK documentation classifies certain network or socket failures and some 5xx responses as transient, treats throttling separately, and lists access-denied, validation, and missing-resource errors as non-retryable. These are AWS SDK classifications, not a rule for every HTTP service or library. Consult the specific dependency and SDK behavior: AWS SDK retry behavior.
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Make sure repeating the operation is safe
An operation is idempotent when repeating it has the same state effect as performing it once. A retry after an uncertain outcome can duplicate side effects if the original request partly or fully succeeded. Use an idempotency guarantee or key where the dependency supports one, and verify what the operation does before enabling automatic retries. AWS’s retry guidance states that operations should be idempotent when using retry with backoff: AWS Prescriptive Guidance: Retry with backoff pattern.
Limit attempts and spread them out
Every retry is another unit of load. Exponential backoff increases the delay between successive attempts; jitter randomizes those delays so many clients recovering from the same failure do not all retry at once. Set a maximum attempt count or elapsed-time limit as well: delays and repeated attempts must fit inside the caller’s deadline, not consume it.
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Retry layers can multiply work. If an SDK, service layer, and client each retry, the downstream dependency may receive many more attempts than expected. Choose a deliberate retry layer, inspect built-in behavior, and measure actual attempts rather than assuming defaults.
AWS documents SDK-specific examples, not portable tuning recommendations: its reference describes 50 ms base delay for transient errors, 1,000 ms for throttling errors, exponential backoff capped at 20 seconds, and a default configuration of three total attempts (one initial attempt plus two retries). Treat those figures as AWS SDK behavior, not universal values. AWS also advises deciding whether to retry when a request times out or returns an error: AWS Well-Architected Framework: Control and limit retry calls.
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What does a circuit breaker do?
A circuit breaker is a stateful policy for recurring trouble, not another name for a retry. When a configured failure condition is reached, it opens and rejects or short-circuits calls rather than continuing to contact the dependency. After a pause, it permits a limited probe; successful recovery can allow calls to resume, while continued failure keeps calls suppressed. An application can fail fast or use a fallback while the breaker is open.
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This is useful for synchronous calls to dependencies that are unavailable or so slow that waiting is adding pressure elsewhere. It gives an unhealthy service a chance to recover and helps prevent callers from spending resources on calls unlikely to succeed. AWS describes the pattern as preventing retries after repeated timeouts or failures: AWS Prescriptive Guidance: Circuit breaker pattern.
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Set the failure threshold, open duration, and recovery probe policy to match the service and recovery goals. There are no generally applicable values in the cited guidance; monitor breaker state, rejected calls, and recovery to see whether the policy is functioning as intended.
How do the strategies work together?
For a remote operation that can safely be repeated, a typical policy bounds each attempt with a timeout, retries only eligible errors using backoff and jitter, and caps the entire sequence by the caller’s deadline. A circuit breaker can then suppress calls when failures indicate sustained trouble. Specify the policy as a whole rather than tuning each control in isolation.
- Which errors qualify for retry, based on the dependency’s contract?
- Is the operation safe to repeat, including after an uncertain timeout?
- What timeout applies to each attempt, and what is the total request deadline?
- How many attempts or how much elapsed retry time is allowed, and what backoff and jitter apply?
- What failure condition opens the breaker, how long does it remain open, and what probe checks recovery?
- What should the caller do when the deadline expires or the breaker is open?
Composition and exception behavior vary by framework and version. Microsoft’s .NET HTTP resilience example composes timeout, retry, and circuit-breaker strategies; its documented sample uses a 10-second breaker sampling duration, a 0.2 (20%) failure ratio, minimum throughput of three, a five-second timeout, and five retries. These are example configuration values, not general recommendations. The example also notes that Polly’s timeout exception type can differ from the standard TimeoutException, so check the documentation for the version and stack you use: Microsoft Learn: HTTP resilience in .NET.
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How can you keep retries from worsening an outage?
- Retry selectively: do not repeat permanent errors such as authorization or validation failures unless the dependency contract says otherwise.
- Keep the operation safe: establish idempotency before retrying requests with side effects.
- Bound the work: limit both attempts and elapsed time, accounting for attempt timeouts and backoff delays.
- Desynchronize clients: use jitter, especially when many callers may experience the same failure.
- Avoid layered retry multiplication: inspect client, service, and SDK policies and decide which layer owns retries.
- Watch the outcome: track attempt counts, final errors, latency, timeouts, breaker state, rejected calls, and recovery. Verify what the actual library or SDK does.
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