> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.havl.io/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.havl.io/integrate-havl/reliability/retries-and-timeouts.md).

# Retries & Timeouts

Use exponential backoff with jitter for retryable transport failures and service errors. Keep retries bounded so a downstream outage does not create an internal retry storm.

Separate **API request timeouts** from **verification workflow timeouts**. An API request should complete in seconds; a human verification task may legitimately remain open longer.

For create operations, retry only with idempotency protection. For reads, retries are generally safer. For cancellation or other state transitions, reconcile the current task state before repeating an ambiguous request.


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