Workflow retries logic

[Vadim]

Hi all. I have the following activity options in my workflow:

activityCtx := workflow.WithActivityOptions(ctx, workflow.ActivityOptions{
		StartToCloseTimeout: time.Hour,
		HeartbeatTimeout:    2 * time.Second,
		RetryPolicy: &temporal.RetryPolicy{
			InitialInterval:    time.Second,
			BackoffCoefficient: 2.0,
			MaximumInterval:    time.Minute,
			MaximumAttempts:    20,
		},
	})

When the workflow fails, temporal created a new one with the same identifier and kept trying in it. Why does this happen?

[taonic]

Can you check if you have retry policy configured for your workflow too? If so, after the activity exhaust it’s retries, the workflow itself will be retried with a continue-as-new execution, hence the same workflow ID.

Reference: Retry Policies | Temporal Documentation

[Vadim]

Yes, workflow also has retry options. Its MaximumAttempts option are higher than the activity MaximumAttempts. Thank you!

[tihomir]

It’s typically not recommended to explicitly set workflow retry policy. Do you have specific use case for it?

[Vadim]

No, there are no special use cases.

[tihomir]

Ok, in that case I don’t think you should specify it.