Kong: retries and timeouts multiply

The defaults are 5 retries against 60-second timeouts, so a single client request can occupy a connection for five minutes before it fails.

Code

curl -X PATCH http://localhost:8001/services/billing \
  --data connect_timeout=2000 \
  --data write_timeout=5000 \
  --data read_timeout=5000 \
  --data retries=2

Output

Defaults (5 x 60s): worst case 300 s per request
Above   (2 x 5s):   worst case  15 s per request

# Retrying a SLOW upstream adds load to the thing already struggling. Retries
# are for connection failures; a low value plus health checks is usually
# better than a high one.
#
# Kong retries are not idempotency-aware: a POST that timed out after the
# upstream processed it will be sent again.

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Published 2026-08-25