How do you implement a custom RetryPolicy in Spring Retry?

You can implement a custom RetryPolicy by implementing the RetryPolicy interface, which gives you full control over whether a retry should be allowed based on any criteria — not just exception type or count. Custom policies are useful when retry decisions depend on application-specific state, such as response content, quota availability, or external configuration.

RetryPolicy interface contract:

public interface RetryPolicy {
    boolean canRetry(RetryContext context);
    RetryContext open(RetryContext parent);
    void close(RetryContext context);
    void registerThrowable(RetryContext context, Throwable throwable);
}

Custom policy example — retry on specific error codes in the exception message:

public class ErrorCodeRetryPolicy implements RetryPolicy {

    private final int maxAttempts;

    public ErrorCodeRetryPolicy(int maxAttempts) {
        this.maxAttempts = maxAttempts;
    }

    @Override
    public boolean canRetry(RetryContext context) {
        Throwable last = context.getLastThrowable();
        if (last == null) return true; // first attempt
        boolean isRetryableCode = last.getMessage() != null
            && last.getMessage().contains("RETRY_CODE");
        return isRetryableCode && context.getRetryCount() < maxAttempts;
    }

    @Override
    public RetryContext open(RetryContext parent) {
        return new SimpleRetryContext(parent);
    }

    @Override
    public void close(RetryContext context) {}

    @Override
    public void registerThrowable(RetryContext context, Throwable throwable) {
        ((SimpleRetryContext) context).registerThrowable(throwable);
    }
}

Register it on a RetryTemplate with template.setRetryPolicy(new ErrorCodeRetryPolicy(4)).

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