clade-reliability-patterns
Build fault-tolerant Claude integrations — retries, circuit breakers, Use when working with reliability-patterns patterns. fallbacks, timeouts, and graceful degradation. Trigger with "anthropic reliability", "claude fault tolerance", "anthropic circuit breaker", "claude fallback".
What this skill does
# Anthropic Reliability Patterns
## Overview
Build fault-tolerant Claude integrations with built-in SDK retries, model fallback chains (Sonnet → Haiku), circuit breakers to avoid hammering a failing API, graceful degradation with cached/static responses, and per-request timeout configuration.
## Built-In SDK Retries
The SDK retries 429 (rate limit) and 529 (overloaded) automatically:
```typescript
const client = new Anthropic({
maxRetries: 3, // default: 2
timeout: 120_000, // 2 minutes
});
```
## Model Fallback Chain
```typescript
const FALLBACK_CHAIN = ['claude-sonnet-4-20250514', 'claude-haiku-4-5-20251001'];
async function callWithFallback(params: Anthropic.MessageCreateParams) {
for (const model of FALLBACK_CHAIN) {
try {
return await client.messages.create({ ...params, model });
} catch (err) {
if (err instanceof Anthropic.APIError && err.status >= 500) {
console.warn(`${model} failed (${err.status}), trying next...`);
continue;
}
throw err; // Don't retry client errors (4xx)
}
}
throw new Error('All models failed');
}
```
## Circuit Breaker
```typescript
class ClaudeCircuitBreaker {
private failures = 0;
private lastFailure = 0;
private readonly threshold = 5;
private readonly resetMs = 60_000;
async call(params: Anthropic.MessageCreateParams) {
if (this.failures >= this.threshold && Date.now() - this.lastFailure < this.resetMs) {
throw new Error('Circuit open — Claude API unavailable');
}
try {
const result = await client.messages.create(params);
this.failures = 0;
return result;
} catch (err) {
if (err instanceof Anthropic.APIError && err.status >= 500) {
this.failures++;
this.lastFailure = Date.now();
}
throw err;
}
}
}
```
## Graceful Degradation
```typescript
async function getResponse(userInput: string): Promise<string> {
try {
const message = await client.messages.create({
model: 'claude-sonnet-4-20250514',
max_tokens: 1024,
messages: [{ role: 'user', content: userInput }],
});
return message.content[0].text;
} catch (err) {
// Return cached/static response instead of failing
console.error('Claude unavailable, using fallback');
return "I'm temporarily unable to process your request. Please try again shortly.";
}
}
```
## Timeout Handling
```typescript
const client = new Anthropic({
timeout: 30_000, // 30s for most requests
});
// Override per-request for long-running tasks
const message = await client.messages.create(params, {
timeout: 120_000, // 2 minutes for complex prompts
});
```
## Output
- SDK configured with appropriate `maxRetries` and `timeout`
- Model fallback chain automatically trying cheaper models on failure
- Circuit breaker preventing cascading failures during outages
- Graceful degradation returning static responses when Claude is unavailable
## Error Handling
| Error | Cause | Solution |
|-------|-------|----------|
| API Error | Check error type and status code | See `clade-common-errors` |
## Examples
See Built-In SDK Retries, Model Fallback Chain, Circuit Breaker class, Graceful Degradation handler, and Timeout Handling above.
## Resources
- [Error Types](https://docs.anthropic.com/en/api/errors)
- SDK Retries
## Next Steps
See `clade-policy-guardrails` for content safety patterns.
## Prerequisites
- Completed `clade-install-auth`
- Production Claude integration requiring high availability
- Understanding of fault tolerance patterns (retries, circuit breakers)
## Instructions
### Step 1: Review the patterns below
Each section contains production-ready code examples. Copy and adapt them to your use case.
### Step 2: Apply to your codebase
Integrate the patterns that match your requirements. Test each change individually.
### Step 3: Verify
Run your test suite to confirm the integration works correctly.
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