MCPInstall

python-resilience

Python resilience patterns including automatic retries, exponential backoff, timeouts, and fault-tolerant decorators. Use when adding retry logic, implementing timeouts, building fault-tolerant services, or handling transient failures.

Installs
11.9K
Last 24h
+37
Trending rank
#4056
Security
Pass

Install

Works with every agent the skills CLI supports.

npx skills add https://github.com/wshobson/agents --skill python-resilience
  1. 01

    Install

    Run the command in your project. The CLI asks which agents to install for.

  2. 02

    Describe the task

    Ask your agent for something this skill covers. It loads python-resilience automatically when relevant.

  3. 03

    Review the result

    The agent follows the SKILL.md steps, scripts and references bundled with the skill.

Security audits

Independent scans of the skill's instructions and bundled files.

Gen Agent Trust Hub PassSAFE ·The skill provides safe, best-practice Python coding patterns for building resilient applications using well-known libraries. No malicious patterns or security vulnerabilities were detected.
Socket PassNo alerts
Snyk PassLOW ·Risk: LOW · No issues
Runlayer PassLOW ·1/1 file flagged
ZeroLeaks PassNONE ·Score: 93/100 · 2 sections analyzed

SKILL.md

The instructions your agent reads when the skill is triggered.

Python Resilience Patterns

Build fault-tolerant Python applications that gracefully handle transient failures, network issues, and service outages. Resilience patterns keep systems running when dependencies are unreliable.

When to Use This Skill

  • Adding retry logic to external service calls
  • Implementing timeouts for network operations
  • Building fault-tolerant microservices
  • Handling rate limiting and backpressure
  • Creating infrastructure decorators
  • Designing circuit breakers

Core Concepts

1. Transient vs Permanent Failures

Retry transient errors (network timeouts, temporary service issues). Don't retry permanent errors (invalid credentials, bad requests).

2. Exponential Backoff

Increase wait time between retries to avoid overwhelming recovering services.

3. Jitter

Add randomness to backoff to prevent thundering herd when many clients retry simultaneously.

4. Bounded Retries

Cap both attempt count and total duration to prevent infinite retry loops.

Quick Start

from tenacity import retry, stop_after_attempt, wait_exponential_jitter

@retry(
    stop=stop_after_attempt(3),
    wait=wait_exponential_jitter(initial=1, max=10),
)
def call_external_service(request: dict) -> dict:
    return httpx.post("https://api.example.com", json=request).json()

Fundamental Patterns

Pattern 1: Basic Retry with Tenacity

Use the tenacity library for production-grade retry logic. For simpler cases, consider built-in retry functionality or a lightweight custom implementation.

from tenacity import (
    retry,
    stop_after_attempt,
    stop_after_delay,
    wait_exponential_jitter,
    retry_if_exception_type,
)

TRANSIENT_ERRORS = (ConnectionError, TimeoutError, OSError)

@retry(
    retry=retry_if_exception_type(TRANSIENT_ERRORS),
    stop=stop_after_attempt(5) | stop_after_delay(60),
    wait=wait_exponential_jitter(initial=1, max=30),
)
def fetch_data(url: str) -> dict:
    """Fetch data with automatic retry on transient failures."""
    response = httpx.get(url, timeout=30)
    response.raise_for_status()
    return response.json()

Pattern 2: Retry Only Appropriate Errors

Whitelist specific transient exceptions. Never retry:

  • ValueError, TypeError - These are bugs, not transient issues
  • AuthenticationError - Invalid credentials won't become valid
  • HTTP 4xx errors (except 429) - Client errors are permanent
from tenacity import retry, retry_if_exception_type
import httpx

# Define what's retryable
RETRYABLE_EXCEPTIONS = (
    ConnectionError,
    TimeoutError,
    httpx.ConnectTimeout,
    httpx.ReadTimeout,
)

@retry(
    retry=retry_if_exception_type(RETRYABLE_EXCEPTIONS),
    stop=stop_after_attempt(3),
    wait=wait_exponential_jitter(initial=1, max=10),
)
def resilient_api_call(endpoint: str) -> dict:
    """Make API call with retry on network issues."""
    return httpx.get(endpoint, timeout=10).json()

Pattern 3: HTTP Status Code Retries

Retry specific HTTP status codes that indicate transient issues.

from tenacity import retry, retry_if_result, stop_after_attempt
import httpx

RETRY_STATUS_CODES = {429, 502, 503, 504}

def should_retry_response(response: httpx.Response) -> bool:
    """Check if response indicates a retryable error."""
    return response.status_code in RETRY_STATUS_CODES

@retry(
    retry=retry_if_result(should_retry_response),
    stop=stop_after_attempt(3),
    wait=wait_exponential_jitter(initial=1, max=10),
)
def http_request(method: str, url: str, **kwargs) -> httpx.Response:
    """Make HTTP request with retry on transient status codes."""
    return httpx.request(method, url, timeout=30, **kwargs)

Pattern 4: Combined Exception and Status Retry

Handle both network exceptions and HTTP status codes.

from tenacity import (
    retry,
    retry_if_exception_type,
    retry_if_result,
    stop_after_attempt,
    wait_exponential_jitter,
    before_sleep_log,
)
import logging
import httpx

logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)

TRANSIENT_EXCEPTIONS = (
    ConnectionError,
    TimeoutError,
    httpx.ConnectError,
    httpx.ReadTimeout,
)
RETRY_STATUS_CODES = {429, 500, 502, 503, 504}

def is_retryable_response(response: httpx.Response) -> bool:
    return response.status_code in RETRY_STATUS_CODES

@retry(
    retry=(
        retry_if_exception_type(TRANSIENT_EXCEPTIONS) |
        retry_if_result(is_retryable_response)
    ),
    stop=stop_after_attempt(5),
    wait=wait_exponential_jitter(initial=1, max=30),
    before_sleep=before_sleep_log(logger, logging.WARNING),
)
def robust_http_call(
    method: str,
    url: str,
    **kwargs,
) -> httpx.Response:
    """HTTP call with comprehensive retry handling."""
    return httpx.request(method, url, timeout=30, **kwargs)

Detailed worked examples and patterns

Detailed sections (starting with ## Advanced Patterns) live in references/details.md. Read that file when the navigation summary above is insufficient.

Best Practices Summary

  1. Retry only transient errors - Don't retry bugs or authentication failures
  2. Use exponential backoff - Give services time to recover
  3. Add jitter - Prevent thundering herd from synchronized retries
  4. Cap total duration - stop_after_attempt(5) | stop_after_delay(60)
  5. Log every retry - Silent retries hide systemic problems
  6. Use decorators - Keep retry logic separate from business logic
  7. Inject dependencies - Make infrastructure testable
  8. Set timeouts everywhere - Every network call needs a timeout
  9. Fail gracefully - Return cached/default values for non-critical paths
  10. Monitor retry rates - High retry rates indicate underlying issues

FAQ

What does the python-resilience skill do?

Python resilience patterns including automatic retries, exponential backoff, timeouts, and fault-tolerant decorators. Use when adding retry logic, implementing timeouts, building fault-tolerant services, or handling transient failures.

How do I install python-resilience?

Run npx skills add https://github.com/wshobson/agents --skill python-resilience in your project. The skills CLI detects the agents you use and copies the skill into the right folder. For Claude Code you can also place the skill folder at ~/.claude/skills/python-resilience/ (personal) or .claude/skills/python-resilience/ (project).

Which AI agents can use python-resilience?

Any agent that supports the open Agent Skills format (a folder with a SKILL.md file), including Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, Windsurf, Cline, OpenCode and more.

Is python-resilience safe to install?

Security partners have reviewed it: Gen Agent Trust Hub passed; Socket passed; Snyk passed; Runlayer passed; ZeroLeaks passed. As with any skill, read the SKILL.md and bundled scripts before installing.

Who maintains python-resilience?

It is published by wshobson in wshobson/agents. It has 11,863 recorded installs.

More from wshobson/agents

View all →

Master TypeScript's advanced type system including generics, conditional types, mapped types, template literals, and utility types for building type-safe applications. Use when implementing complex type logic, creating reusable type utilities, or ensuring compile-time type safety in TypeScript projects.

tailwind-design-system

wshobson/agents

Build scalable design systems with Tailwind CSS v4, design tokens, component libraries, and responsive patterns. Use when creating component libraries, implementing design systems, or standardizing UI patterns.

Frontend & Design70.6K installs

Build production-ready Node.js backend services with Express/Fastify, implementing middleware patterns, error handling, authentication, database integration, and API design best practices. Use when creating Node.js servers, REST APIs, GraphQL backends, or microservices architectures.

Backend & APIs48.8K installs

brand-landingpage

wshobson/agents

Brand-first landing page designer — runs a brand-identity interview (colors, typography, shape language), then generates and iterates on a polished landing page via Stitch with deployment-ready HTML. Use when the user asks to create, design, or build a landing page, homepage, or marketing page and has no established visual direction. Skip when they have a design mockup, need a dashboard or app UI, are working at component level, building a multi-page app, or restyling with known design tokens — use frontend-design instead.

Frontend & Design39.6K installs

Implement comprehensive testing strategies with pytest, fixtures, mocking, and test-driven development. Use when writing Python tests, setting up test suites, or implementing testing best practices.

Testing & QA37.3K installs

Profile and optimize Python code using cProfile, memory profilers, and performance best practices. Use when debugging slow Python code, optimizing bottlenecks, or improving application performance.

Popular other skills

View category →

hyperframes-cli

heygen-com/hyperframes

The HyperFrames CLI by job - scaffold, check, look at frames, edit the timeline, preview, render locally or in the cloud, publish, project history - plus reading its JSON and recovering from build or render failures.

1.3M installs

triage

mattpocock/skills

Move issues and external PRs through a state machine of triage roles, categorise, verify, grill if needed, and write agent-ready briefs.

1M installs

ask-matt

mattpocock/skills

Ask which skill or flow fits your situation. A router over the skills in this repo.

778.4K installs

to-questionnaire

mattpocock/skills

Turn a decision you can't fully answer into a questionnaire for someone else to fill in.

508.9K installs

wait-what

mattpocock/skills

Stop. That last message did not land: re-pitch it.

459.7K installs

loop-me

mattpocock/skills

Grill me about specs for the workflows I want to build, within this workspace.

447.9K installs