principle-make-operations-idempotent
Skill4 starsChanged 15 days agoMITView on GitHub
Use when designing commands, setup or install flows, lifecycle steps, or processing loops that might be retried or restarted. Every run, including one following a crash at any step, must end in the same correct state.
47 other projects use a version of this.
Adopted by
Most recently taken up by
- maxatwork/skillstheir own version, first seen Nov 8, 2026
- paramcodes/skillstheir own version, first seen Nov 8, 2026
- tristanphvn/keeltheir own version, first seen Nov 8, 2026
- hidenobunagai/astacktheir own version, first seen Nov 8, 2026
- creedants/pstack-t3their own version, first seen Nov 3, 2026
- painhardcore/pstacktheir own version, first seen Nov 2, 2026
Used with
Projects with it also use setup-pstack, poteto-help and 3 more.
Other files people use alongside this one.
Files found in the same public projects as a version of this one, more often than they turn up anywhere else. Each project counts once, large collections count for less, and this file's own repository is left out.
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Other versions47 projects use a version of this.
Word for word · 0
None found.
Edited · 0
None found.
Wrote their own version · 47
- backnotprop/pstack★ 3.8ksame name
- jtaroreh/agystack★ 128same name
- uzairansaruzi/p3-stack★ 126same name
- dsebban/skills★ 71same name
- TheOnlyFusionCube/potetos-for-everyone★ 21same name
- creedants/pstack-t3★ 18same name
- painhardcore/pstack★ 18same name
- Scino/fstack★ 18same name
- mariusflorescu/pstack-t3★ 13same name
- adjohn/pstack★ 9same name
37 more not listed
How matches are found. Word for word: the exact same text. Edited: shares passages with this file (“99% same” means 99% of its five-word phrases also appear here; 10% or more counts). Their own version: similar meaning, or, weakest, the same name. We can’t tell which project had it first. Projects are counted among the 200 most-starred candidates, and mentions are links to the repository we found, up to 50 per site, so both counts are a floor.
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The file
We split this skill into the rules it gives an agent
3 rules. 0 are common, 3 are distinctive, and 0 are very specific to this project.
0
Common
Most of the 47 edited versions we read keep these.
3
Distinctive
This author's own choices. Worth a look.
0
Very specific
Tied to their project's names, files or tools. Probably skip.
- Common
- Distinctive
- Very specific
- Distinctive: line 20
Write to a temporary path, then rename atomically into place, so readers never see a half-written file.
- Distinctive: line 21
If any answer in step 1 is "it depends on what was left behind", add a reconciliation step that inspects the leftovers and fixes them …
- Distinctive: line 31
All three questions in step 1 answer "same end state".
“Common” is measured: kept by at least 6 in 10 of the 47 edited versions of this file we could read. “Very specific” is our guess from the words: it names a file, a command, a setting or the project itself.
Files
Make operations idempotent
Build each operation that changes state so that repeating it any number of times, even after a crash at an arbitrary point, lands on one correct final state.
When it applies
Commands, lifecycle steps, setup and install flows, processing loops, and anything else that may be retried or restarted. Pure reads are exempt.
What to do
- For every mutating operation, answer three questions. What does a second consecutive run do? If an earlier run died at any given point, what does the next one do? Does rerunning end in the same state?
- Base each step on the state present right now, rather than on what a prior run meant to do. Read what is there, compare it with the target, and change only what differs, so a repeated run finds no work left. A script that grants an IAM role should check whether the binding exists before adding it, so a second run is a no-op and not a duplicate or an error.
- Leave anything a run might abandon (locks, temp files, half-written records, claimed jobs) in a form the following run can identify as stale. Base staleness on evidence that holds wherever the previous run stopped. A lock file holding a PID that is no longer alive is judgeable. A lock file with no owner information turns every crash into manual cleanup.
- Write to a temporary path, then rename atomically into place, so readers never see a half-written file. Compare artifacts by content (a hash), not by creation order or timestamp.
- If any answer in step 1 is "it depends on what was left behind", add a reconciliation step that inspects the leftovers and fixes them before proceeding.
Idempotency has a security side. A non-idempotent key-rotation job that crashes between "create new key" and "revoke old key" can leave two valid keys live, and a rerun may create a third. Designing it to converge closes that window.
The failure it prevents
Restarts that turn into debugging sessions, duplicated side effects (two charges, two notifications, two credentials), and orphaned locks.
Done when
All three questions in step 1 answer "same end state".
Related: principle-separate-before-serializing-shared-state, principle-build-the-lever.
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