retry-on-fail

Retry any function with exponential backoff. Zero dependencies, fully typed.

Install

npm install retry-on-fail

Quick start

import { withRetry } from "retry-on-fail";

const data = await withRetry(() =>
  fetch("https://api.example.com/users").then((r) => r.json())
);

Retries up to 3 times with a 500 ms → 1 s → 2 s backoff by default.

API

withRetry(fn, options?)

| Parameter | Type | Default | Description | |---|---|---|---| | fn | () => T \| Promise<T> | — | Function to call. Sync or async. | | options.retries | number | 3 | Max retry attempts after the first failure. | | options.delay | number | 500 | Initial delay in ms. Doubles with each attempt. |

Returns Promise<T>. Resolves with the first successful result, or rejects after all retries are exhausted.

Examples

Increase retries for a slow upstream

const result = await withRetry(fetchReport, { retries: 5, delay: 1000 });
// Waits: 1 s → 2 s → 4 s → 8 s → 16 s

Cancel mid-flight with AbortSignal

Aborting the signal stops retries immediately — the error propagates to the caller.

const controller = new AbortController();

const data = await withRetry(() =>
  fetch("/api/report", { signal: controller.signal }).then((r) => r.json())
);

controller.abort(); // no retries; error propagates to the caller

Handle total failure

If every attempt throws, withRetry rejects with the error from the last attempt.

try {
  await withRetry(unstableOperation, { retries: 2 });
} catch (err) {
  console.error("All retries exhausted:", err);
}

License

MIT