Retry Patterns

Core Principles

• Retry only transient failures — not business errors or 4xx responses
• Always use exponential backoff to avoid overwhelming recovering services
• Add jitter to prevent thundering herd when multiple clients retry simultaneously
• Set a maximum retry count to avoid infinite loops
• Only retry idempotent operations safely; non-idempotent requires idempotency keys

Patterns

HTTP Retry with Exponential Backoff + Jitter

builder.Services.AddHttpClient("OrdersApi", client =>
{
    client.BaseAddress = new Uri("https://api.orders.{Company}.com");
})
.AddResilienceHandler("retry-pipeline", pipeline =>
{
    pipeline.AddRetry(new HttpRetryStrategyOptions
    {
        MaxRetryAttempts = 3,
        Delay = TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(500),
        BackoffType = DelayBackoffType.Exponential,
        UseJitter = true,  // Adds randomness to prevent thundering herd
        ShouldHandle = new PredicateBuilder<HttpResponseMessage>()
            .HandleResult(r =>
                r.StatusCode == HttpStatusCode.TooManyRequests ||
                r.StatusCode == HttpStatusCode.ServiceUnavailable ||
                r.StatusCode >= HttpStatusCode.InternalServerError)
            .Handle<HttpRequestException>()
            .Handle<TimeoutRejectedException>()
    });
});

Retry with Respect for Retry-After Header

pipeline.AddRetry(new HttpRetryStrategyOptions
{
    MaxRetryAttempts = 3,
    DelayGenerator = args =>
    {
        // Respect Retry-After header from server
        if (args.Outcome.Result?.Headers.RetryAfter is { } retryAfter)
        {
            var delay = retryAfter.Delta
                ?? (retryAfter.Date.HasValue
                    ? retryAfter.Date.Value - DateTimeOffset.UtcNow
                    : TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1));

            return ValueTask.FromResult<TimeSpan?>(delay);
        }

        // Default exponential backoff
        return ValueTask.FromResult<TimeSpan?>(
            TimeSpan.FromSeconds(Math.Pow(2, args.AttemptNumber)));
    },
    ShouldHandle = new PredicateBuilder<HttpResponseMessage>()
        .HandleResult(r =>
            r.StatusCode == HttpStatusCode.TooManyRequests ||
            r.StatusCode >= HttpStatusCode.InternalServerError)
});

Database Retry

// EF Core built-in retry
options.UseSqlServer(connectionString, sql =>
{
    sql.EnableRetryOnFailure(
        maxRetryCount: 3,
        maxRetryDelay: TimeSpan.FromSeconds(5),
        errorNumbersToAdd: null); // null = retry all transient errors
});

// Custom retry with Polly for non-EF operations
builder.Services.AddResiliencePipeline("db-operation", pipeline =>
{
    pipeline.AddRetry(new RetryStrategyOptions
    {
        MaxRetryAttempts = 3,
        Delay = TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(200),
        BackoffType = DelayBackoffType.Exponential,
        UseJitter = true,
        ShouldHandle = new PredicateBuilder()
            .Handle<SqlException>(ex => ex.IsTransient)
            .Handle<TimeoutException>()
    });
});

Retry with Logging

pipeline.AddRetry(new HttpRetryStrategyOptions
{
    MaxRetryAttempts = 3,
    Delay = TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(500),
    BackoffType = DelayBackoffType.Exponential,
    UseJitter = true,
    OnRetry = args =>
    {
        var logger = args.Context.Properties.GetValue(
            new ResiliencePropertyKey<ILogger>("logger"), null!);

        logger?.LogWarning(
            "Retry attempt {AttemptNumber} after {Delay}ms. " +
            "Reason: {Reason}",
            args.AttemptNumber,
            args.RetryDelay.TotalMilliseconds,
            args.Outcome.Exception?.Message ??
                args.Outcome.Result?.StatusCode.ToString());

        return ValueTask.CompletedTask;
    }
});

Non-HTTP Retry (Generic)

builder.Services.AddResiliencePipeline("message-queue", pipeline =>
{
    pipeline.AddRetry(new RetryStrategyOptions
    {
        MaxRetryAttempts = 5,
        Delay = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1),
        BackoffType = DelayBackoffType.Exponential,
        UseJitter = true,
        MaxDelay = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(30), // cap max delay
        ShouldHandle = new PredicateBuilder()
            .Handle<MessageQueueException>()
            .Handle<TimeoutException>()
    });
});

// Usage
public sealed class MessagePublisher(
    [FromKeyedServices("message-queue")] ResiliencePipeline pipeline,
    IMessageBus messageBus)
{
    public async Task PublishAsync<T>(T message, CancellationToken ct)
    {
        await pipeline.ExecuteAsync(
            async token => await messageBus.SendAsync(message, token),
            ct);
    }
}

Idempotency Key for Non-Idempotent Retries

// For POST/PUT operations that create resources
public sealed class PaymentClient(HttpClient httpClient)
{
    public async Task<PaymentResult> ChargeAsync(
        ChargeRequest request, CancellationToken ct)
    {
        // Include idempotency key so retries don't duplicate charges
        var idempotencyKey = Guid.NewGuid().ToString();

        var httpRequest = new HttpRequestMessage(
            HttpMethod.Post, "/charges")
        {
            Content = JsonContent.Create(request)
        };
        httpRequest.Headers.Add(
            "Idempotency-Key", idempotencyKey);

        var response = await httpClient.SendAsync(httpRequest, ct);
        response.EnsureSuccessStatusCode();

        return await response.Content
            .ReadFromJsonAsync<PaymentResult>(ct)
            ?? throw new InvalidOperationException(
                "Empty response from payment service");
    }
}

Backoff Strategy Comparison

Constant:     [1s] [1s] [1s] [1s]
Linear:       [1s] [2s] [3s] [4s]
Exponential:  [1s] [2s] [4s] [8s]
Exp + Jitter: [0.8s] [2.3s] [3.7s] [8.1s]  ← Recommended

Anti-Patterns

• Retrying business errors (400 Bad Request, 404 Not Found)
• Retrying without backoff (constant delay hammers the service)
• No jitter on backoff (all clients retry at the same time)
• Retrying non-idempotent POST without idempotency key
• No maximum retry count (infinite retries)
• Retrying auth failures (401/403) — these won't resolve with retry

Detect Existing Patterns

1. Search for AddRetry or RetryStrategyOptions usage
2. Look for old Polly v7 WaitAndRetryAsync (migration candidate)
3. Check for EnableRetryOnFailure in EF Core configuration
4. Search for manual retry loops (while / for with try-catch)
5. Look for Idempotency-Key header usage

Adding to Existing Project

1. Replace manual retry loops with Polly resilience pipelines
2. Add exponential backoff + jitter to all retry strategies
3. Configure per-client retry based on downstream SLAs
4. Add logging to retry events for observability
5. Add idempotency keys for non-idempotent POST operations
6. Respect Retry-After headers from rate-limited APIs

Decision Guide

Scenario	Max Retries	Base Delay	Backoff
HTTP API call	3	500ms	Exponential + jitter
Database connection	3	200ms	Exponential + jitter
Message queue publish	5	1s	Exponential + jitter
File upload	2	1s	Exponential
Payment processing	1-2	1s	Exponential (with idempotency key)

References

• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/resilience/
• https://www.pollydocs.org/strategies/retry
• https://aws.amazon.com/builders-library/timeouts-retries-and-backoff-with-jitter/