dead letter queue pattern
When a message can't be processed after repeated retries, route it to a dead-letter queue rather than blocking the main queue or losing it. Operators inspect, fix, replay.
When a message can't be processed after repeated retries, route it to a dead-letter queue rather than blocking the main queue or losing it. Operators inspect, fix, replay.
symptoms
- poison messages blocking processing
- silent message loss
- consumers crashing on a single bad payload
causes
- no max-retry policy
- no separate channel for permanently-failed messages
fixes
- max retry count → DLQ
- alarms on DLQ depth
- tooling to inspect and replay
you might say
- dead-letter it
- send it to the DLQ