What is the RetryCallback interface in Spring Retry?

RetryCallback is a functional interface that wraps the operation to be retried when using RetryTemplate programmatically. It represents the unit of work that may fail and should be retried.

@FunctionalInterface
public interface RetryCallback<T, E extends Throwable> {
    T doWithRetry(RetryContext context) throws E;
}

The generic type T is the return type of the operation, and E is the exception type it may throw. The context parameter gives access to retry count, last exception, and custom attributes.

Usage with lambda:

String result = retryTemplate.execute((RetryCallback<String, IOException>) context -> {
    log.info("Attempt #" + (context.getRetryCount() + 1));
    return remoteService.fetchData();
});

When using the two-argument form of execute(), the second argument is a RecoveryCallback — a companion interface that defines the fallback to invoke when all retry attempts are exhausted:

String result = retryTemplate.execute(
    ctx -> remoteService.fetchData(),        // RetryCallback
    ctx -> "default-value"                  // RecoveryCallback
);

The RecoveryCallback receives the same RetryContext, which includes getLastThrowable() so you can log or inspect the final failure reason.

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