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Idempotency

Category: Distributed systems · Status: stub

One line: An operation that has the same effect whether it runs once or several times, which is what makes retrying after a timeout safe.

Also called: idempotent.

How it connects

flowchart LR
  n_durable_execution["Durable execution"]
  n_idempotency["Idempotency"]
  n_durable_execution -->|uses| n_idempotency
  classDef center stroke-width:3px
  class n_idempotency center
  classDef outside stroke-dasharray: 4 3
  class n_durable_execution outside

In each language
Elsewhere HTTP: the safe methods, PUT and DELETE are idempotent ↗, POST and PATCH are not guaranteed to be; APIs such as Stripe's ↗ take an idempotency key so that a retried request is safe

Where to read more