Idempotency means running something twice doesn't break anything. It's the difference between "oops" and "disaster."
The Problem It Solves
Imagine your automation sends a welcome email when someone signs up. The system glitches and runs twice. Without idempotency, your customer gets two identical emails. Annoying, but survivable.
Now imagine it's a payment processor that charges them twice. That's a lawsuit waiting to happen.
What Idempotent Operations Look Like
An idempotent operation produces the same result no matter how many times you run it:
- โ Set status to "active" โ Running twice still = active
- โ Create record if not exists โ Second run finds existing record, skips
- โ Add $50 to balance โ Running twice = +$100 (NOT idempotent)
- โ Send email โ Running twice = two emails (NOT idempotent)
How to Make Operations Idempotent
- 1. Use unique IDs โ Check if this exact operation already ran
- 2. Check before acting โ "Does this record already exist?"
- 3. Use "upsert" patterns โ Create or update, not just create
- 4. Track completion โ Log when operations finish successfully
Build idempotency into every automation, and you'll sleep better at night.
