Configure Retry on Error

Setup

Via the UI

The toggle sits in the route wizard in Step 5 — Reliability (together with Circuit Breaker and Request Mirroring).

1. Create or edit a route
2. In Step 5 enable the Retry on Error toggle
3. Set Retry Count (1-10, default: 3)
4. Save

Via the API

# Enable retry with 5 attempts
curl -X PUT https://gatecontrol.example.com/api/v1/routes/1 \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer gc_..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "retry_enabled": true,
    "retry_count": 5
  }'

Important notes

• POST/PUT/DELETE are retried as well. GateControl performs no automatic idempotency check — the admin must know whether the backend supports retryable write operations. Example: a retry on POST /api/orders could trigger a duplicate order. Only enable retry if the backend supports idempotent operations or only handles GET requests.
• Retry is only available for HTTP routes, not for L4 (TCP/UDP).
• Retries happen back-to-back — there is no exponential backoff.
• With a single backend, retries can additionally load the server if it is already overloaded.
• Retry Count of 1 means: 1 initial attempt + 1 retry = maximum 2 requests to the backend.
• Retries are invisible to the client — they either receive the successful response or the last error.
• In combination with Circuit Breaker: when the Circuit Breaker is open, no retries are attempted (Caddy immediately serves 503).

See also

• CIRCUIT-BREAKER.md — protects the backend during a permanent outage
• UPTIME-MONITORING.md — detects longer outages complementary to retry