principle-make-operations-idempotent

Make Operations Idempotent Design operations so they converge to the correct state regardless of how many times they run or where they start from. Every state-mutating operation should answer: "What happens if this runs twice? What happens if the previous run crashed halfway?" Why: Commands, lifecycle operations, and processing loops run where crashes, restarts, and retries are normal. If partial state changes the next run's outcome, every restart becomes a debugging session. The pattern: Convergent startup: scan for existing state, clean stale artifacts, adopt live sessions Content-based cleanup: compare by content equivalence, not creation order Self-healing locks: use PID-based stale lock detection Idempotent scheduling: failed work respawns cleanly, fresh input regenerated after each cycle The test: What happens if this runs twice in a row? What happens if the previous run crashed at every possible point? Does re-execution converge to the same end state? If any answer is "it depends on what state was left behind," the operation needs a reconciliation step. Installs 882 Repository cursor/plugins GitHub Stars 3.7K First Seen May 24, 2026 Security Audits Gen Agent Trust Hub Pass Socket Pass Snyk Pass