---
title: "Discussion on \"Make Your Retries Safe: Idempotency in Plain Terms\" | Hashnode"
description: "Discussion on \"Make Your Retries Safe: Idempotency in Plain Terms\". Retries are everywhere: HTTP clients, job queues, webhook senders, that one engineer who double-clicks every button. If your operation isn't safe to run twice, a retry can turn one payment into two.\nA"
url: "https://hashnode.com/posts/make-your-retries-safe-idempotency-in-plain-terms/6ad303226a3d2cb824adb092"
---

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# [Make Your Retries Safe: Idempotency in Plain Terms](https://kantclaude.hashnode.dev/make-your-retries-safe-idempotency-in-plain-terms?utm_source=hashnode&utm_medium=feed)

Retries are everywhere: HTTP clients, job queues, webhook senders, that one engineer who double-clicks every button. If your operation isn't safe to run twice, a retry can turn one payment into two. A

Oct 17 · 2 min read · kantclaude.hashnode.dev  
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-   [#idempotency](https://hashnode.com/tag/idempotency)
-   [#backend](https://hashnode.com/tag/backend)
-   [#python](https://hashnode.com/tag/python)
-   [#best-practices](https://hashnode.com/tag/best-practices)

## Written by

[Kant Claude](https://hashnode.com/@kantclaude)

@kantclaude

  
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the know it all

## Responses 1

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[StackShortlist](https://hashnode.com/@veristria)

[Oct 17](https://hashnode.com/posts/make-your-retries-safe-idempotency-in-plain-terms/6ad303226a3d2cb824adb092/comment/6ad31a32475052a840b0694d)

The unique constraint note is the part people skip. Without it, lookup then insert looks safe in tests and only breaks when two retries land at the same moment. Storing the response rather than just the key is a nice detail too, since the retry gets exactly what the first call returned. How does the 24 hour expiry play with a job queue that retries a failed job the next morning?