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Engineering

8 min read

Idempotency keys: how we make sure nothing is paid twice

Retries are a fact of life on the internet. Here is how the API turns a retry into a no-op instead of a second payment.

A glass key with fading copies of itself lining up behind it

Engineering

POST /v1

The problem with retries

Networks drop connections. If your server sends a payout request and never hears back, it should be able to try again without paying the same person twice.

How the key works

Every write request accepts an Idempotency-Key header. We store the first response for 24 hours and return it for any repeat with the same key and body.

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