How Idempotency Keys Prevent Duplicate Charges and Errors in ASP.NET Core APIs
When a client retries a failed HTTP request, side-effecting endpoints like payment processing or inventory updates can execute the same operation multiple times, causing duplicate charges or corrupted data — a problem known as a retry storm. Idempotency keys, typically UUIDs generated by the client, allow the server to detect repeated requests and return a cached response instead of reprocessing them. Developers can implement this in ASP.NET Core 8 using middleware that checks a distributed cache such as Redis before executing any business logic. The cached response — including status code and body — is stored for up to 24 hours so that replays return identical results without re-running operations. This pattern is especially critical for financial transactions, order creation, and third-party API integrations, while read-only endpoints generally do not require it.
This is an AI-generated summary. ShortSingh links to the original source for the complete article.
Discussion (0)
Log in to join the discussion and vote.
Log in