Resources/Stop / Retry / Escalate decision tree (template)

Stop / Retry / Escalate decision tree (template)

A decision tree for bounded retries: classify failures, enforce time budgets, and escalate with an operator payload.

FreeJan 21, 2026

From this article

The real cost of retry logic: when “resilience” makes outages worse

Retry storms don’t look like a bug — they look like good engineering until production melts. Here’s how to bound retries with stop rules and proof.

Use this when retries are making an incident worse.

What you get

stop-retry-escalate-decision-tree.md
retry-budget-template.md
layered-retry-audit-checklist.md

How to use

Print or paste the decision tree into your incident doc.
Pick a total time budget for the call path (web request vs job step).
Define STOP, RETRY, and ESCALATE rules in one place.
Audit layered retries (HttpClient, Polly, queue redelivery) and remove duplicates.
Add per-attempt logs so you can prove attempts, delays, and budget usage.

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