An idempotent API is an API endpoint designed so that calling it multiple times with the same input produces the same server-side result as calling it once, making it safe to retry after a timeout or uncertain response.
HTTP method semantics give a starting point — GET, PUT, and DELETE are specified to be idempotent (a repeated PUT with the same body should leave the resource in the same state; a repeated DELETE of an already-deleted resource should be a no-op, not an error), while POST is traditionally not, since it's often used to create a new resource each time it's called. In practice, teams still need to design POST endpoints carefully for idempotency wherever a duplicate submission would cause a real problem, such as creating two orders or sending two payments.
The standard technique is an idempotency key: the client generates a unique token per logical operation and sends it with the request; the server records which keys it has already processed and returns the original result for a repeat, instead of executing the operation again. This lets a client safely retry on timeout or connection drop without a human needing to manually check “did that actually go through” before trying again.
Neotask's job and billing endpoints accept an idempotency key on write requests, so if a worker's HTTP call to record a completed job times out and the caller retries, the server recognizes the duplicate key and returns the original result instead of double-processing the job or double-charging credits.
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