# API Retries Backoff Resilience

> Implement client and service resilience: retry only transient failures, exponential backoff with jitter, honor Retry-After, timeouts, and circuit breakers. Use when designing HTTP clients or outbound API calls.

- Skill: `deangrant/api-retries-backoff-resilience` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 4 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add deangrant/api-retries-backoff-resilience`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/deangrant/api-retries-backoff-resilience/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Integrations & APIs
- Author: deangrant (https://skillmd.com/u/deangrant)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/deangrant/api-retries-backoff-resilience

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# Retries, Backoff, and Resilience

Use this skill when callers **retry** HTTP dependencies safely.

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## 1. What to retry

Retry **transient** failures (408, 429, 502, 503, 504, network blips). Do not
blindly retry non-idempotent POSTs without `Idempotency-Key`.

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## 2. Backoff

Exponential backoff **+ jitter**. Honor `Retry-After` when present — it
overrides client-computed delay. Cap attempts.

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## 3. Defense in depth

Explicit timeouts on outbound calls; circuit breakers to shed load; bulkheads
between dependency classes.

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## 4. Quick checklist

- [ ] Retry policy matches idempotency.
- [ ] Backoff + jitter; honor Retry-After.
- [ ] Timeouts always set.
- [ ] Circuit breaker on unstable deps.

See [reference.md](reference.md) and [examples.md](examples.md).