docs: add documentation for upstream reliability (retry + timeout) (#6119)

Co-authored-by: Arda TANRIKULU <ardatanrikulu@gmail.com>

packages/web/docs/src/pages/docs/gateway/other-features/_meta.ts

@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 export default {
   index: 'Overview',
+  'upstream-reliability': 'Upstream Reliability',
   performance: 'Performance/Cache',
   security: 'Security',
   'header-propagation': 'Header Propagation',

packages/web/docs/src/pages/docs/gateway/other-features/upstream-reliability.mdx

@@ -0,0 +1,212 @@
+---
+description: Improve reliability of Hive Gateway with timeout and retry policy for upstream requests
+---
+
+# Upstream reliability
+
+Hive Gateway offers Retry and Timeout features to improve the reliability of the traffic between the
+gateway and the subgraphs.
+
+## Retry mechanism
+
+A large range of errors happening between the gateway and the upstream subgraphs are temporary
+errors. Which means a lot of errors can be solved by issuing the same request again after a short
+delay.
+
+The Retry feature allows to automatically retry failed upstream requests, improving the ratio of
+successful responses from the client point of view.
+
+```mermaid
+sequenceDiagram
+  Client->>Gateway: query { field }
+  Gateway->>Subgraph: query { field }
+  Subgraph->>Gateway: 503 Service Unavailable
+  Note over Gateway: Wait for a short delay before trying again
+  Gateway->>Subgraph: query { field }
+  Subgraph->>Gateway: 503 Service Unavailable
+  Note over Gateway: Wait again for short a delay
+  Gateway->>Subgraph: query { field }
+  Subgraph->>Gateway: { data: { field: "value" } }
+  Gateway->>Client: { data: { field: "value" } }
+```
+
+### Global configuration
+
+This feature can be enabled for all subgraphs at once by using `upstreamRetry` option.
+
+The only mandatory option to provide is the number of maximum retries allowed.
+
+Once enabled, any upstream request execution failing with an exception will be retried, with a delay
+of 1 second between each try.
+
+If the upstream is using the `fetch`, the request will be retried only if the status code is `429`,
+`5XX`, or if the `Retry-After` header is present in the response. If the `Retry-After` header is
+present, the delay between retries will respect it, otherwise it defaults to 1 second.
+
+```ts filename="gateway.config.ts"
+import { defineConfig } from '@graphql-hive/gateway'
+
+export const gatewayConfig = defineConfig({
+  upstreamRetry: {
+    maxRetries: 3
+  }
+})
+```
+
+### Per-subgraph configuration
+
+Hive Gateway lets you define different retry policy for each subgraph by providing a function to the
+`upstreamRetry` option
+
+This function will be called for each upstream request, which allows you to have full control of the
+retry policy.
+
+```ts filename="gateway.config.ts"
+import { defineConfig } from '@graphql-hive/gateway'
+
+export const gatewayConfig = defineConfig({
+  upstreamRetry: ({ subgraphName }) => {
+    if (subgraphName == 'very-unreliable-subgraph') {
+      return {
+        maxRetries: 10
+      }
+    }
+
+    return {
+      maxRetries: 3
+    }
+  }
+})
+```
+
+### Retry delay configuration
+
+The default delay to wait between tries.
+
+If the subgraph is using HTTP protocol, the delay is replaced by the response's `Retry-After` header
+if present.
+
+The `Retry-After` can either contain a number of second or a date.
+
+```ts filename="gateway.config.ts"
+import { defineConfig } from '@graphql-hive/gateway'
+
+export const gatewayConfig = defineConfig({
+  upstreamRetry: {
+    maxRetries: 3,
+    retryDelay: 1000 // delay in milliseconds
+  }
+})
+```
+
+### Exponential backoff configuration
+
+To avoid adding pressure on a subgraph that is already potentially struggling with load, a standard
+method is to use an exponential backoff.
+
+A backoff consist of increasing the delay between tries after each try, to give more time to the
+server to recover from the error state.
+
+An exponential backoff consist of increasing the delay exponentially after each tries, by
+multiplying the delay by a given rate instead of increasing it by a fixed amount. This is the
+industry standard backoff strategy, because it is the most effective way to release the pressure on
+the upstream service without entirely giving up from receiving a response.
+
+Hive Gateway implements an exponential backoff by default. You can change the backoff rate using
+`retryDelayFactor` option. You can use a factor of `1` to disable backoff and have a fix retry
+delay.
+
+```ts filename="gateway.config.ts"
+import { defineConfig } from '@graphql-hive/gateway'
+
+export const gatewayConfig = defineConfig({
+  upstreamRetry: {
+    maxRetries: 3,
+    retryDelayFactor: 1.25 // default value. Use a value of 1 to disable backoff.
+  }
+})
+```
+
+### Conditional retry logic
+
+Hive Gateway offer the possibility to skip retrying a specific upstream request, based on its
+context or returned value.
+
+For example, you can make Hive Gateway always retry any response with an error HTTP status code (>=
+400).
+
+```ts filename="gateway.config.ts"
+import { defineConfig } from '@graphql-hive/gateway'
+
+export const gatewayConfig = defineConfig({
+  upstreamRetry: {
+    maxRetries: 3,
+    shouldRetry: ({ response }) => response?.status >= 400 // Always retry any HTTP errors
+  }
+})
+```
+
+## Timeout management
+
+An upstream request timeout limit is the maximum time the gateway waits for a response from an
+upstream subgraph before aborting the request. This ensures the gateway remains responsive and
+prevents it from waiting indefinitely for a slow or unresponsive subgraphs.
+
+### Global configuration
+
+Hive Gateway allows to configure a global timeout for all subgraphs at once.
+
+```ts filename="gateway.config.ts"
+import { defineConfig } from '@graphql-hive/gateway'
+
+export const gatewayConfig = defineConfig({
+  // The maximum time in milliseconds to wait for a response from the upstream.
+  upstreamTimeout: 1000
+})
+```
+
+### Per-subgraph configuration
+
+You can finely grain configure the timeout for each upstream execution request by providing a
+function instead of a number.
+
+This function is called for each upstream request, allowing for complete control over the timeout
+strategy.
+
+```ts filename="gateway.config.ts"
+import { defineConfig } from '@graphql-hive/gateway'
+
+export const gatewayConfig = defineConfig({
+  upstreamTimeout: ({ subgraphName }) => {
+    if (subgraphName == 'very-slow-subgraph') {
+      return 60_000 // Allow for longer request for this very slow server
+    }
+    return 30_000
+  }
+})
+```
+
+## Combining retry and timeout features
+
+If Retry and Timeout are both enabled at the same time (which is recommended), the timeout will be
+applied to each try.
+
+It also means that a timed-out request will be retried, until the maximum retry count is reached,
+respecting the retry delay between tries.
+
+If you prefer to have a timeout spanning over the retries, to ensure a maximum execution time for an
+execution request, you can manually add the plugin to your configuration.
+
+```ts filename="gateway.config.ts"
+import { defineConfig, useUpstreamRetry, useUpstreamTimeout } from '@graphql-hive/gateway'
+
+export const gatewayConfig = defineConfig({
+  plugins: () => [
+    useUpstreamRetry({
+      maxRetries: 10
+      retryDelay: 1_000,
+    }),
+    useUpstreamTimeout(10_000)
+  ]
+})
+```