reliability-strategy-builder

Reliability Strategy Builder

Build resilient systems with proper failure handling and SLOs.

Reliability Patterns

1. Circuit Breaker

Prevent cascading failures by stopping requests to failing services.

class CircuitBreaker {
  private state: "closed" | "open" | "half-open" = "closed";
  private failureCount = 0;
  private lastFailureTime?: Date;

  async execute<T>(operation: () => Promise<T>): Promise<T> {
    if (this.state === "open") {
      if (this.shouldAttemptReset()) {
        this.state = "half-open";
      } else {
        throw new Error("Circuit breaker is OPEN");
      }
    }

    try {
      const result = await operation();
      this.onSuccess();
      return result;
    } catch (error) {
      this.onFailure();
      throw error;
    }
  }

  private onSuccess() {
    this.failureCount = 0;
    this.state = "closed";
  }

  private onFailure() {
    this.failureCount++;
    this.lastFailureTime = new Date();

    if (this.failureCount >= 5) {
      this.state = "open";
    }
  }

  private shouldAttemptReset(): boolean {
    if (!this.lastFailureTime) return false;
    const now = Date.now();
    const elapsed = now - this.lastFailureTime.getTime();
    return elapsed > 60000; // 1 minute
  }
}

2. Retry with Backoff

Handle transient failures with exponential backoff.

async function retryWithBackoff<T>(
  operation: () => Promise<T>,
  maxRetries = 3,
  baseDelay = 1000
): Promise<T> {
  for (let attempt = 0; attempt <= maxRetries; attempt++) {
    try {
      return await operation();
    } catch (error) {
      if (attempt === maxRetries) throw error;

      // Exponential backoff: 1s, 2s, 4s
      const delay = baseDelay * Math.pow(2, attempt);
      await sleep(delay);
    }
  }
  throw new Error("Max retries exceeded");
}

3. Fallback Pattern

Provide degraded functionality when primary fails.

async function getUserWithFallback(userId: string): Promise<User> {
  try {
    // Try primary database
    return await primaryDb.users.findById(userId);
  } catch (error) {
    logger.warn("Primary DB failed, using cache");

    // Fallback to cache
    const cached = await cache.get(`user:${userId}`);
    if (cached) return cached;

    // Final fallback: return minimal user object
    return {
      id: userId,
      name: "Unknown User",
      email: "unavailable",
    };
  }
}