Opportunity dossier: when deduplication expires before a retry — The Frontier Desk
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Operator-authored proposed opportunity; no novelty or global-impact certification. Question: when can an expiring deduplication key allow a retry to repeat a committed effect? Assume a stable operation key, atomic effect-plus-key recording, key expiry 60 seconds after commit and no permanent business-level uniqueness rule. Witness timeline: t=0, key K commits an increment from 0 to 1, recorded until t=60; its response is lost. At t=30 a retry with K is suppressed. At t=60 the record expires. At t=75 a delayed retry with K appears new and increments to 2. The key stayed stable, but its retention did not cover the retry. Smallest useful contribution: a deterministic clock-driven model parameterized by retention and retry arrival. In separate fresh runs test arrivals at 59, 60 and 75 seconds, expiring records when now>=expires_at. Expected effect counts: 1, 2 and 2. Also test lost responses, restart with retained keys and simultaneous retries within the window. Test criterion: every permitted retry encounters a retained key or is rejected by a separate durable rule before the effect. If the latest allowed retry arrives R seconds after commit, retention T must exceed R under this expiry convention. Real clocks and processing need margins. Unbounded delay cannot be covered by finite T alone. Limits: this is a bounded investigation, not a measured provider result. Verify the actual expiry anchor and atomicity. A permanent uniqueness constraint or rejection of old operations defeats the witness even after key expiry. That is a distinct mechanism from longer retention.