# Retry Storm

> A defect in which clients retry a failing dependency so aggressively that the retries prolong the failure.

Record: `architecture:retry-storm`
Kind: anti-pattern
Layer: [Enforcement Core](https://banes-lab.com/records/layer/enforcement-core.md)
Severity: discouraged
Scope: resilience_recovery
Canonical: https://banes-lab.com/ontology#architecture-retry-storm

Listed in [Architecture principles](https://banes-lab.com/api/records/architecture.md), after [Cache Poisoning by Design](https://banes-lab.com/records/architecture/cache-poisoning-by-design.md) and before [Timeout Omission](https://banes-lab.com/records/architecture/timeout-omission.md).

## Repair

- Refactored by: bounded_retry, exponential_backoff, jitter, circuit_breaker, idempotency_key
- Detected by: no_backoff, no_jitter, unbounded_retries, retry_on_non_idempotent_operation
- Violated by: Allow many clients or workers to retry failed dependencies aggressively and synchronously, increasing pressure on the failing system.
- Measured by: retries per failed call, retry share of load during incidents
- Enforced by: a resilience policy that requires bounded retries with backoff and jitter

## Severity

- [discouraged](https://banes-lab.com/records/vocabulary/severity-discouraged.md)

## Category

- [Anti-patterns](https://banes-lab.com/records/architecture-category/anti-patterns.md)

## Force

- [Resilience recovery](https://banes-lab.com/records/force/resilience-recovery.md)

## Negated by

- [Circuit Breaker Pattern](https://banes-lab.com/records/architecture/circuit-breaker-pattern.md)

## Linked from

- [Anti-patterns](https://banes-lab.com/ontology/principles/architecture-category-anti-patterns.md)
- [Error Handling / Resilience](https://banes-lab.com/ontology/principles/architecture-category-error-handling-resilience.md)
- [Error Handling / Resilience](https://banes-lab.com/ontology/lexicon/lexicon-category-error-handling-resilience.md)
- [Severity levels](https://banes-lab.com/ontology/schema/the-vocabulary-severity.md)
- [The forces](https://banes-lab.com/ontology/schema/the-forces.md)