From 853762dea30582090d2c272ad3f42253953bd5bb Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: jnjpng <jinjpeng@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 3 Mar 2026 18:36:21 -0800
Subject: [PATCH] fix: align headless 409 busy retry with TUI exponential
 backoff (#1253)

Co-authored-by: Letta Code <noreply@letta.com>
---
 src/cli/App.tsx |  4 ++--
 src/headless.ts | 17 +++++++++--------
 2 files changed, 11 insertions(+), 10 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/cli/App.tsx b/src/cli/App.tsx
index 8ceff20..27d9101 100644
--- a/src/cli/App.tsx
+++ b/src/cli/App.tsx
@@ -328,8 +328,8 @@ const LLM_API_ERROR_MAX_RETRIES = 3;
 const EMPTY_RESPONSE_MAX_RETRIES = 2;
 
 // Retry config for 409 "conversation busy" errors (exponential backoff)
-const CONVERSATION_BUSY_MAX_RETRIES = 3; // 2.5s -> 5s -> 10s
-const CONVERSATION_BUSY_RETRY_BASE_DELAY_MS = 2500; // 2.5 seconds
+const CONVERSATION_BUSY_MAX_RETRIES = 3; // 10s -> 20s -> 40s
+const CONVERSATION_BUSY_RETRY_BASE_DELAY_MS = 10000; // 10 seconds
 
 // Message shown when user interrupts the stream
 const INTERRUPT_MESSAGE =
diff --git a/src/headless.ts b/src/headless.ts
index d43158e..8e9415f 100644
--- a/src/headless.ts
+++ b/src/headless.ts
@@ -131,9 +131,9 @@ const LLM_API_ERROR_MAX_RETRIES = 3;
 // Retry 1: same input. Retry 2: with system reminder nudge.
 const EMPTY_RESPONSE_MAX_RETRIES = 2;
 
-// Retry config for 409 "conversation busy" errors
-const CONVERSATION_BUSY_MAX_RETRIES = 1; // Only retry once, fail on 2nd 409
-const CONVERSATION_BUSY_RETRY_DELAY_MS = 2500; // 2.5 seconds
+// Retry config for 409 "conversation busy" errors (exponential backoff)
+const CONVERSATION_BUSY_MAX_RETRIES = 3; // 10s -> 20s -> 40s
+const CONVERSATION_BUSY_RETRY_BASE_DELAY_MS = 10000; // 10 seconds
 
 export type BidirectionalQueuedInput = QueuedTurnInput<
   MessageCreate["content"]
@@ -1553,6 +1553,9 @@ ${SYSTEM_REMINDER_CLOSE}
         // Check for 409 "conversation busy" error - retry once with delay
         if (preStreamAction === "retry_conversation_busy") {
           conversationBusyRetries += 1;
+          const retryDelayMs =
+            CONVERSATION_BUSY_RETRY_BASE_DELAY_MS *
+            2 ** (conversationBusyRetries - 1);
 
           // Emit retry message for stream-json mode
           if (outputFormat === "stream-json") {
@@ -1561,21 +1564,19 @@ ${SYSTEM_REMINDER_CLOSE}
               reason: "error", // 409 conversation busy is a pre-stream error
               attempt: conversationBusyRetries,
               max_attempts: CONVERSATION_BUSY_MAX_RETRIES,
-              delay_ms: CONVERSATION_BUSY_RETRY_DELAY_MS,
+              delay_ms: retryDelayMs,
               session_id: sessionId,
               uuid: `retry-conversation-busy-${randomUUID()}`,
             };
             console.log(JSON.stringify(retryMsg));
           } else {
             console.error(
-              `Conversation is busy, waiting ${CONVERSATION_BUSY_RETRY_DELAY_MS / 1000}s and retrying...`,
+              `Conversation is busy, waiting ${Math.round(retryDelayMs / 1000)}s and retrying...`,
             );
           }
 
           // Wait before retry
-          await new Promise((resolve) =>
-            setTimeout(resolve, CONVERSATION_BUSY_RETRY_DELAY_MS),
-          );
+          await new Promise((resolve) => setTimeout(resolve, retryDelayMs));
           continue;
         }