Make a job or webhook safe to retry

Prompt that protects a job or webhook against double execution with an idempotency key, clear states and retry rules. Paste it into an AI tool of your choice, which then makes retries safe.

Topic: Apps & prototypes
Type: Prompt
Level: Advanced
Time: about 10 min

Results depend on the tool, the model and what you enter.

Result preview

Example: written by our editors, not real AI output.

Risk: the payment provider resends the same event if we do not reply within 10 seconds. Key: provider event ID, unique index in table "processed_events", kept for 30 days States: received → processing → done / failed Repeat while "done": return 200 at once, book nothing Retries: only timeouts and 5xx, at most 5, growing delay with jitter, then to the failed-jobs list Tests: send the event twice; abort after booking; two deliveries at the same time Assumption: the database supports transactions.

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ProcessWhich process?

ImpactWhat happens if it runs twice?

StackWhat do you work with?

Your prompt

Make the following process safe to retry.
Process: [Process]
What would happen if it ran twice: [Impact]
Stack: [Stack]
Approach: 1. Describe where in the process retries and duplicate deliveries can occur, for example through timeouts or events that are sent again. 2. Define an idempotency key that uniquely identifies the same request, and decide where and for how long it is stored. 3. Show the process with states such as received, in progress, done and failed, and what a retry does in each state. 4. Set rules for retries: which errors are retried, how often, with growing intervals and some randomness, and where jobs that finally fail end up. 5. Write example code or pseudocode for checking the key. 6. Name three tests that simulate duplicate delivery and an interruption halfway through. Mark assumptions about libraries and the database with "Assumption:".

Take particular care to walk through every duplicate delivery and mark assumptions about libraries openly.

Before you answer, check: Are all instructions met? If key information is missing or a placeholder in square brackets is still in the text, ask instead of guessing. Mark assumptions as assumptions.

Make the following process safe to retry.
Process: [Process]
What would happen if it ran twice: [Impact]
Stack: [Stack]
Approach: 1. Describe where in the process retries and duplicate deliveries can occur, for example through timeouts or events that are sent again. 2. Define an idempotency key that uniquely identifies the same request, and decide where and for how long it is stored. 3. Show the process with states such as received, in progress, done and failed, and what a retry does in each state. 4. Set rules for retries: which errors are retried, how often, with growing intervals and some randomness, and where jobs that finally fail end up. 5. Write example code or pseudocode for checking the key. 6. Name three tests that simulate duplicate delivery and an interruption halfway through. Mark assumptions about libraries and the database with "Assumption:".

Take particular care to walk through every duplicate delivery and mark assumptions about libraries openly.

Before you answer, check: Are all instructions met? If key information is missing or a placeholder in square brackets is still in the text, ask instead of guessing. Mark assumptions as assumptions.

This is an instruction for an AI, not the result itself.

Where this prompt works

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Copy the finished prompt into an AI tool of your choice.
Before going live, deliberately feed duplicate events and interruptions into a test environment and check that every effect happens exactly once.

Why does this work?

When in doubt, networks and queues deliver twice rather than not at all. A key plus clear states turn "hopefully only once" into a testable "takes effect exactly once".

Tips

Store the key in the same transaction as the actual change, otherwise there is a gap between the two.

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Make a job or webhook safe to retry

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