What is a retry?
A retry runs a failed step again after a pause. It helps when a service blinked. It hurts when the failure was a bad phone number or a rate limit you immediately hammer. The automation glossary on this site also covers retry logic for classic workflows. This page is about the customer-facing choice.
Also called: timeout
In plain English
A timeout means the other side did not answer in time. A retry might be right. A validation error means your data is wrong. A retry will fail the same way. If the first attempt might have sent the text, a retry might send it again. Pair retries with idempotency. Retry the things that failed because the network blinked. Do not retry a payment or a customer text until you know the first attempt did not already happen. Put a limit on tries, and a wait between them, or you will hammer a vendor and duplicate the side effect. When the retries are used up, land in the exception queue with the error visible. Silent retry forever is how a small bug becomes a weekend incident.
How an owner would use it
Retry technical blips a couple of times with a wait. Do not retry sends until you know the first attempt did not go out. Put anything still failing on the exception queue.
Common mistakes
Instant retries on a rate limit extend the outage. Unlimited retries on a send duplicate the message. Do not hide retries so the log looks green. A timeout is not proof the action failed to happen. Sometimes it happened and the response got lost.
A worked example
A roll-off dumpster rental
The sheet sync retries, the delivery text does not
This is an illustration, not a customer result. If the route sheet fails to open, the workflow waits and tries twice more. If a delivery text fails, it does not fire again automatically. The dispatcher looks at the ticket and sends once they can see the truck status.
Related terms
Prompts and guides
Questions owners ask
What is a retry?
A retry attempts a failed step again, ideally after a pause, and only when repeating the step is safe.
How do I retry without double-texting?
Do not automatically retry a send. Check the provider result or use an idempotency key so a repeat cannot create a second message.
What is a timeout?
A timeout means the step stopped waiting. It does not always mean the other system did nothing. Confirm before you repeat a charge or a text.
Product guides are on AI apps for business.