Make deliveries refused while half-open wait a cooldown (closes #306)

While the breaker was half-open, Allow refused every delivery but the
probe and CooldownRemaining returned zero, so each queued task for the
target went straight back onto the retry channel and rewrote its status
on every pass until the probe finished.

CooldownRemaining now returns the whole cooldown while half-open, so a
refused delivery waits that long. A refused delivery already at
retrying is not written again, so the retry counter now moves only
when a refusal moves a delivery into retrying.

Model: opus-5-5

README.md

@@ -2051,7 +2051,7 @@ rescans the database anyway).
 | ----------- | -------- |
 | **Closed**  | Normal operation. Deliveries flow through. Consecutive failures are counted. |
 | **Open**    | Target appears down. Deliveries are skipped and rescheduled for after the cooldown. |
-| **Half-Open** | Cooldown expired. One probe delivery is allowed to test if the target has recovered. |
+| **Half-Open** | Cooldown expired. One probe delivery is allowed to test if the target has recovered. Other deliveries are rescheduled for one whole cooldown later. |
 
 **Transitions:**
 
@@ -2089,7 +2089,9 @@ operations), and log targets (stdout) do not use circuit breakers.
 When a circuit is open and a new delivery arrives, the engine marks the
 delivery as `retrying` and schedules a retry timer for after the
 remaining cooldown period. This ensures no deliveries are lost — they're
-just delayed until the target is healthy again.
+just delayed until the target is healthy again. A delivery already in
+`retrying` keeps that status without another database write each time
+the breaker turns it away.
 
 ### Metrics
 
@@ -2103,7 +2105,7 @@ arriving and being stored, they are just not getting anywhere.
 | Metric | Type | Meaning |
 | ------ | ---- | ------- |
 | `webhooker_events_received_total` | counter | Events received and durably stored. Compare against the delivery counters on one dashboard |
-| `webhooker_delivery_attempts_total` | counter | Delivery attempts actually dispatched to a target. A delivery an open circuit breaker refused is not one: it is counted as a retry instead |
+| `webhooker_delivery_attempts_total` | counter | Delivery attempts actually dispatched to a target. A delivery a circuit breaker refused is not one: it is counted as a retry instead, but only when the refusal moves it into `retrying` |
 | `webhooker_deliveries_succeeded_total` | counter | Deliveries that reached `delivered` |
 | `webhooker_deliveries_failed_total` | counter | Deliveries that failed terminally and will not be retried |
 | `webhooker_delivery_retries_total` | counter | Deliveries put back into `retrying` |

internal/delivery/circuit_breaker.go

@@ -76,12 +76,20 @@ func (cb *CircuitBreaker) Allow() bool {
 	}
 }
 
-// CooldownRemaining returns how much time is left before
-// an open circuit transitions to half-open.
+// CooldownRemaining returns how long a delivery that Allow refused
+// should wait before it is tried again. Closed, it returns zero.
+// Open, it returns what is left of the cooldown, or zero once that
+// has passed. Half-open, it returns the whole cooldown: the one
+// probe delivery is still in flight, and if it fails the circuit
+// reopens for that long.
 func (cb *CircuitBreaker) CooldownRemaining() time.Duration {
 	cb.mu.Lock()
 	defer cb.mu.Unlock()
 
+	if cb.state == CircuitHalfOpen {
+		return cb.cooldown
+	}
+
 	if cb.state != CircuitOpen {
 		return 0
 	}

internal/delivery/circuit_breaker_test.go

@@ -267,7 +267,7 @@ func TestCircuitBreaker_CooldownRemaining_ClosedReturnsZero(
 	)
 }
 
-func TestCircuitBreaker_CooldownRemaining_HalfOpenReturnsZero(
+func TestCircuitBreaker_CooldownRemaining_HalfOpenReturnsCooldown(
 	t *testing.T,
 ) {
 	t.Parallel()
@@ -282,9 +282,11 @@ func TestCircuitBreaker_CooldownRemaining_HalfOpenReturnsZero(
 
 	require.True(t, cb.Allow())
 
-	assert.Equal(t, time.Duration(0),
+	// The cooldown newShortCooldownCB gives the breaker.
+	assert.Equal(t, 50*time.Millisecond,
 		cb.CooldownRemaining(),
-		"half-open circuit should have zero cooldown remaining",
+		"a delivery refused while half-open should wait "+
+			"a whole cooldown",
 	)
 }
 

internal/delivery/engine_test.go

@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ import (
 	"time"
 
 	"github.com/google/uuid"
+	"github.com/prometheus/client_golang/prometheus"
 	"github.com/stretchr/testify/assert"
 	"github.com/stretchr/testify/require"
 	"gorm.io/driver/sqlite"
@@ -24,6 +25,7 @@ import (
 	_ "modernc.org/sqlite"
 	"sneak.berlin/go/webhooker/internal/database"
 	"sneak.berlin/go/webhooker/internal/delivery"
+	"sneak.berlin/go/webhooker/internal/metrics"
 )
 
 // testContentType is the event content type used in tests.
@@ -894,6 +896,100 @@ func TestDeliverHTTP_CircuitBreakerBlocks(t *testing.T) {
 	)
 }
 
+// recordingScheduler keeps the delay of every retry it is asked to
+// schedule, and schedules nothing.
+type recordingScheduler struct {
+	delays []time.Duration
+}
+
+func (s *recordingScheduler) ScheduleRetry(
+	_ delivery.Task, delay time.Duration,
+) {
+	s.delays = append(s.delays, delay)
+}
+
+// TestDeliverHTTP_HalfOpenBreakerDelaysQueuedTasks proves that while a
+// half-open breaker's one probe delivery is in flight, every other task
+// for the target is put back with a whole cooldown as its delay rather
+// than none, and that its status is written the first time the breaker
+// turns it away and not on each pass after that.
+func TestDeliverHTTP_HalfOpenBreakerDelaysQueuedTasks(t *testing.T) {
+	t.Parallel()
+
+	db := testWebhookDB(t)
+	e := testEngine(t, 1)
+
+	// Every write of retrying moves the retry counter, so on a registry
+	// this test owns the counter is the number of those writes.
+	reg := prometheus.NewRegistry()
+	e.ExportSetMetrics(metrics.New(reg))
+
+	targetID := uuid.New().String()
+	cb := newShortCooldownCB(t)
+	e.ExportSetCircuitBreaker(targetID, cb)
+
+	for range delivery.ExportDefaultFailureThreshold {
+		cb.RecordFailure()
+	}
+
+	time.Sleep(60 * time.Millisecond)
+
+	require.True(t, cb.Allow(), "the probe delivery should go through")
+	require.Equal(t, delivery.CircuitHalfOpen, cb.State())
+
+	cfg := newHTTPTargetConfig(
+		"http://will-not-be-called.invalid",
+	)
+	sched := &recordingScheduler{}
+
+	const queued, passes = 3, 4
+
+	for range queued {
+		event := seedEvent(t, db, `{"cb":"half-open"}`)
+		dlv := seedDelivery(
+			t, db, event.ID, targetID,
+			database.DeliveryStatusPending,
+		)
+
+		for range passes {
+			// Each pass starts from the stored row, as a retry does.
+			var row database.Delivery
+
+			require.NoError(t, db.First(
+				&row, "id = ?", dlv.ID,
+			).Error)
+
+			fix := buildHTTPFixture(
+				row, event, targetID,
+				"test-cb-half-open", cfg, 5, 1,
+			)
+
+			e.ExportDeliverHTTPWithScheduler(
+				context.TODO(), db, fix.Delivery, fix.Task, sched,
+			)
+		}
+
+		assertDeliveryStatus(t, db, dlv.ID,
+			database.DeliveryStatusRetrying,
+		)
+	}
+
+	require.Len(t, sched.delays, queued*passes)
+
+	for _, delay := range sched.delays {
+		// The cooldown newShortCooldownCB gives the breaker.
+		assert.Equal(t, 50*time.Millisecond, delay,
+			"a task turned away while half-open should wait "+
+				"a whole cooldown",
+		)
+	}
+
+	assert.InDelta(t, float64(queued),
+		mCounter(t, reg, mRetries, mTypeHTTP), 0,
+		"status should be written once per task, not once per pass",
+	)
+}
+
 func TestGetCircuitBreaker_CreatesOnDemand(t *testing.T) {
 	t.Parallel()
 

internal/delivery/export_test.go

@@ -101,6 +101,19 @@ func (e *Engine) ExportDeliverHTTP(
 	e.httpTarget.Deliver(ctx, webhookDB, d, task, e)
 }
 
+// ExportDeliverHTTPWithScheduler delivers via the http target, handing
+// any retry to sched instead of the engine, so a test can see the
+// delay each retry is given.
+func (e *Engine) ExportDeliverHTTPWithScheduler(
+	ctx context.Context,
+	webhookDB *gorm.DB,
+	d *database.Delivery,
+	task *Task,
+	sched Scheduler,
+) {
+	e.httpTarget.Deliver(ctx, webhookDB, d, task, sched)
+}
+
 // ExportDeliverDatabase delivers via the database target.
 func (e *Engine) ExportDeliverDatabase(
 	webhookDB *gorm.DB, d *database.Delivery,
@@ -179,6 +192,14 @@ func (e *Engine) ExportGetCircuitBreaker(
 	return e.httpTarget.getCircuitBreaker(targetID)
 }
 
+// ExportSetCircuitBreaker makes cb the http target's circuit breaker
+// for targetID, so a test can use one with a short cooldown.
+func (e *Engine) ExportSetCircuitBreaker(
+	targetID string, cb *CircuitBreaker,
+) {
+	e.httpTarget.circuitBreakers.Store(targetID, cb)
+}
+
 // ExportParseHTTPConfig exposes parseHTTPConfig.
 func (e *Engine) ExportParseHTTPConfig(
 	configJSON string,

internal/delivery/metrics_test.go

@@ -412,9 +412,10 @@ func TestDeliveryMetrics_BreakerBlockedIsNotAnAttempt(
 
 	s.Engine.ExportProcessRetryTask(context.TODO(), &blocked)
 
-	// The breaker refused it: rescheduled, so the retry counter
-	// moved, but nothing was attempted or timed.
-	assert.InDelta(t, retriesBefore+1,
+	// The breaker refused it: rescheduled without rewriting the
+	// retrying status it already had, so the retry counter did not
+	// move, and nothing was attempted or timed.
+	assert.InDelta(t, retriesBefore,
 		mCounter(t, reg, mRetries, mTypeHTTP), 0)
 	assert.InDelta(t, threshold,
 		mCounter(t, reg, mAttempts, mTypeHTTP), 0)

internal/delivery/target_http.go

@@ -197,10 +197,14 @@ func (c *httpCore) circuitBreakerBlock(
 		"cooldown_remaining", remaining,
 	)
 
+	// A delivery already at retrying is left as it is, so a task
+	// the breaker keeps turning away writes nothing each time.
+	if d.Status != database.DeliveryStatusRetrying {
 		c.eng.settleStatus(
 			webhookDB, d, d.Target.Type,
 			database.DeliveryStatusRetrying,
 		)
+	}
 
 	retryTask := *task
 	sched.ScheduleRetry(retryTask, remaining)