Idempotency

An idempotent operation produces the same result no matter how many times it runs with the same input — calling it twice does nothing a single call didn't already do. For a tool that writes, sends, or deletes, idempotency (usually enforced with a unique key passed on every retry of the same logical call) is what makes a retry safe: without it, a timeout followed by an automatic retry can execute the same mutation twice.

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