antigravity-skills-reference/skills/dbos-golang/references/step-retries.md

title, impact, impactDescription, tags

title	impact	impactDescription	tags
Configure Step Retries for Transient Failures	HIGH	Automatic retries handle transient failures without manual code	step, retry, exponential-backoff, resilience

Configure Step Retries for Transient Failures

Steps can automatically retry on failure with exponential backoff. This handles transient failures like network issues.

Incorrect (manual retry logic):

func fetchData(ctx context.Context) (string, error) {
	var lastErr error
	for attempt := 0; attempt < 3; attempt++ {
		resp, err := http.Get("https://api.example.com")
		if err == nil {
			defer resp.Body.Close()
			body, _ := io.ReadAll(resp.Body)
			return string(body), nil
		}
		lastErr = err
		time.Sleep(time.Duration(math.Pow(2, float64(attempt))) * time.Second)
	}
	return "", lastErr
}

Correct (built-in retries with dbos.RunAsStep):

func fetchData(ctx context.Context) (string, error) {
	resp, err := http.Get("https://api.example.com")
	if err != nil {
		return "", err
	}
	defer resp.Body.Close()
	body, _ := io.ReadAll(resp.Body)
	return string(body), nil
}

func myWorkflow(ctx dbos.DBOSContext, input string) (string, error) {
	data, err := dbos.RunAsStep(ctx, fetchData,
		dbos.WithStepName("fetchData"),
		dbos.WithStepMaxRetries(10),
		dbos.WithBaseInterval(500*time.Millisecond),
		dbos.WithBackoffFactor(2.0),
		dbos.WithMaxInterval(5*time.Second),
	)
	return data, err
}

Retry parameters:

• WithStepMaxRetries(n): Maximum retry attempts (default: 0 — no retries)
• WithBaseInterval(d): Initial delay between retries (default: 100ms)
• WithBackoffFactor(f): Multiplier for exponential backoff (default: 2.0)
• WithMaxInterval(d): Maximum delay between retries (default: 5s)

With defaults, retry delays are: 100ms, 200ms, 400ms, 800ms, 1.6s, 3.2s, 5s, 5s...

If all retries are exhausted, a DBOSError with code MaxStepRetriesExceeded is returned to the calling workflow.

Reference: Configurable Retries