# I want Advice on Handling Complex Workflow Failures in Temporal

**URL:** <https://community.temporal.io/t/i-want-advice-on-handling-complex-workflow-failures-in-temporal/18206>\
**Category:** Developer Corner\
**Created:** [August 18, 2025, 10:17am UTC](https://community.temporal.io/t/i-want-advice-on-handling-complex-workflow-failures-in-temporal/18206 "2025-08-18T10:17:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Olivia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Olivia](https://community.temporal.io/u/Olivia)\
**Post date:** [August 18, 2025, 10:17am UTC](https://community.temporal.io/t/i-want-advice-on-handling-complex-workflow-failures-in-temporal/18206/1 "2025-08-18T10:17:01Z")

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Hi everyone,

I have been experimenting with building workflows that involve multiple dependent activities. While the basics are working fine; I am facing issue when it comes to handling failures in a clean & efficient way. I want to retry it a certain number of times before moving on but I also need to ensure that the overall workflow does not get stuck.

I have been reading through the docs & trying out different retry policies but I still feel such as I am missing something practical. Do most developers here rely on custom error handling logic or do you let Temporal’s built-in retry mechanisms handle the heavy lifting? Also; how do you usually debug tricky scenarios when retries succeed but cause unexpected side effects?

I am also preparing for a [CCSP Course](https://www.igmguru.com/cyber-security/ccsp-isc2-certification-training) so I want to know if any best practices overlap between workflow security & cloud security. Also i have check this [Breakpoints in @workflow.run Not Triggering in Temporal Python SDK (but work in Activities)](https://community.temporal.io/t/breakpoints-in-workflow-run-not-triggering-in-temporal-python-sdk-but-work-in-activities/17482) still need advice.

Thank you.🙂

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![discourse\_ai\_spam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c68b51/32.png) [@discourse\_ai\_spam](https://community.temporal.io/u/discourse_ai_spam)\
**Post date:** [August 18, 2025, 10:17am UTC](https://community.temporal.io/t/i-want-advice-on-handling-complex-workflow-failures-in-temporal/18206/2 "2025-08-18T10:17:39Z")

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/temporal/original/2X/a/abd6146b15e417d16a0b07346b674a331e5bb8ba.webp) [@system](https://community.temporal.io/u/system)\
**Post date:** [August 18, 2025, 6:02pm UTC](https://community.temporal.io/t/i-want-advice-on-handling-complex-workflow-failures-in-temporal/18206/3 "2025-08-18T18:02:45Z")

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**Author:** ![maxim](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/community.temporal.io/maxim/32/8_2.png) [@maxim](https://community.temporal.io/u/maxim)\
**Post date:** [August 18, 2025, 8:45pm UTC](https://community.temporal.io/t/i-want-advice-on-handling-complex-workflow-failures-in-temporal/18206/4 "2025-08-18T20:45:27Z")

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The majority of developers rely on built in activity retries if they need to retry individual activities.

If you need to retry a sequence of activities, these retries are usually performed from a workflow, or this logic is moved to a child workflow.

> I want to retry it a certain number of times before moving on but I also need to ensure that the overall workflow does not get stuck.

This should be pretty straightforward with Temporal SDKs. Is it a general question or you have a specific issue with this?

> Also; how do you usually debug tricky scenarios when retries succeed but cause unexpected side effects?

You activities have to be idempotent. I don’t think there is a general approach of ensuring and troubleshooting issues with idempotency.

> I want to know if any best practices overlap between workflow security & cloud security.

Do you have a specific question about these?