Resources/Retry backoff + jitter checklist (production defaults)

Retry backoff + jitter checklist (production defaults)

Download includes 2 copy/paste files: retry-backoff-jitter-recipes.md (safe defaults, stop rules, 429 handling, caps/budgets) and retry-telemetry-fields.md (log/metric fields + example line for incident debugging).

FreeJan 16, 2026

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Retry backoff and jitter: safe defaults to prevent retry storms

An incident-ready retry policy for production automation: stop rules, exponential backoff + jitter, caps, budgets, and the logs operators need.

This download is meant for on-call operators and owners of production automation (bots, workers, agents).

What’s inside the download

You get two copy/paste Markdown files:

retry-backoff-jitter-recipes.md: safe defaults (backoff + full jitter), stop rules, and 429/Retry-After handling you can standardize across services.
retry-telemetry-fields.md: the exact log/metric fields to emit per attempt, plus an example line you can grep during an incident.

Use it as a lightweight pre-flight before you ship (or change) retries.

Preview (collapsed)

Open the checklist preview

1) Retry classification

Retry only transient failures (timeouts, connection resets, 502/503).
Do not retry deterministic failures (400/401/403/422) unless you explicitly re-auth / refresh.
Treat 429 as “slow down” (not “try harder”).

2) Backoff + jitter

Exponential backoff: delay grows each attempt.
Add jitter so clients do not synchronize.
Cap max delay (e.g. 10-30s) to keep UX predictable.

Suggested defaults (tune per system):

Base delay: 200-500ms
Multiplier: 2x
Max delay: 15s
Attempts: 5 (or time-budgeted)

3) Budgets and caps

Max attempts per request.
Max total retry time budget (e.g. 30s).
Max concurrent retries per dependency (bulkhead).
Circuit breaker trips when the dependency is unhealthy.

4) Timeouts

Every attempt has a timeout.
Timeout is smaller than your overall budget.

5) Telemetry (minimum viable)

Log: dependency name, error class, status code, attempt number, delay.
Emit metrics: retries count, success-after-retry, give-up count.
Trace or correlation id so incidents are debuggable.

6) Rate limits (429)

Respect Retry-After when provided.
Add jitter around server-provided delay.
Reduce concurrency when 429 spikes (token bucket / limiter).

Copy/paste: retry decision table

code

Timeout / reset / 502 / 503 -> retry with backoff+jitter
429 -> retry with Retry-After (or backoff+jitter) + reduce concurrency
401 / 403 -> stop, refresh credentials or alert (no blind retries)
400 / 422 -> stop (bug / invalid request)

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Canonical: https://matrixtrak.com/resources/retry-backoff-jitter-checklist