Workflow Reliability term
Retry policy: meaning, examples, and AI prompt use.
Defines when to retry, when to stop, and how to avoid making failures worse.
What it means
Plain meaning
retry strategy: Defines when to retry, when to stop, and how to avoid making failures worse.
Aliases
retry strategy, backoff, exponential backoff
People say / experts say
People usually say
- failure handling
- temporary failure
- network
- try again
- flaky
- api error
Experts usually say
Retry policy, Timeout, Circuit breaker, Idempotency
When to use it
Use it when
Your rough ask sounds like: failure handling, temporary failure, network. The term gives your coding agent a clearer problem shape.
When not to use it
Do not use this term as a request for a quick screen fix. Use it when the system needs explicit state, rules, failures, or recovery behavior.
Copy-ready handoff phrase
Before and after
Weak ask
Fix this failure handling flow.
Exact Terms ask
Specify retry policy with timeout, backoff, maximum attempts, and non-retryable errors.
Prompt templates by use case
Architecture prompt
Audit this workflow for Retry policy and related concerns: Timeout, Circuit breaker, Idempotency. Return states, rules, failure modes, and recovery behavior before code.
Implementation prompt
Implement Retry policy for this app flow. Include data ownership, edge cases, fallback behavior, and acceptance tests.
Test prompt
Create tests that prove Retry policy works across refresh, retry, back/next movement, partial failure, and return visits.
Common mistake
What goes wrong
Asking for code before defining states, transitions, persistence, and failure behavior.
Better move
Use Retry policy with the related vocabulary trail: Timeout, Circuit breaker, Idempotency.