Circuit Breaker

Protect your gateway from cascading failures when backend services are unhealthy.

Enabling Circuit Breaker

use grpc_graphql_gateway::{Gateway, CircuitBreakerConfig};
use std::time::Duration;

let gateway = Gateway::builder()
    .with_descriptor_set_bytes(DESCRIPTORS)
    .with_circuit_breaker(CircuitBreakerConfig {
        failure_threshold: 5,                      // Open after 5 failures
        recovery_timeout: Duration::from_secs(30), // Wait 30s before testing
        half_open_max_requests: 3,                 // Allow 3 test requests
    })
    .build()?;

Circuit States

   ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
   │                                                 │
   ▼                                                 │
┌──────┐  failure_threshold  ┌──────┐  recovery   ┌─────────┐
│CLOSED│ ─────────────────▶  │ OPEN │ ──────────▶ │HALF-OPEN│
└──────┘     reached         └──────┘   timeout   └─────────┘
   ▲                                                 │
   │         success                                 │
   └─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

State	Description
Closed	Normal operation, all requests flow through
Open	Service unhealthy, requests fail fast
Half-Open	Testing recovery with limited requests

Configuration Options

Option	Type	Default	Description
`failure_threshold`	u32	5	Consecutive failures to open circuit
`recovery_timeout`	Duration	30s	Time before testing recovery
`half_open_max_requests`	u32	3	Test requests in half-open state

How It Works

Closed: Requests flow normally, failures are counted
Threshold reached: Circuit opens after N consecutive failures
Open: Requests fail immediately with SERVICE_UNAVAILABLE
Timeout: After recovery timeout, circuit enters half-open
Half-Open: Limited requests test if service recovered
Success: Circuit closes, normal operation resumes
Failure: Circuit reopens, back to step 3

Error Response

When circuit is open:

{
  "errors": [
    {
      "message": "Service unavailable: circuit breaker is open",
      "extensions": {
        "code": "SERVICE_UNAVAILABLE",
        "service": "UserService"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Per-Service Circuits

Each gRPC service has its own circuit breaker:

UserService circuit open doesn’t affect ProductService
Failures are isolated to their respective services

Benefits

✅ Prevents cascading failures
✅ Fast-fail reduces latency when services are down
✅ Automatic recovery testing
✅ Per-service isolation

Monitoring

Track circuit breaker state through logs:

WARN Circuit breaker opened for UserService
INFO Circuit breaker half-open for UserService (testing recovery)
INFO Circuit breaker closed for UserService (service recovered)

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