skills/redis-development/rules/conn-timeouts.md

title	impact	impactDescription	tags	description	alwaysApply
Configure Connection Timeouts	MEDIUM	Improves connection resilience and failure recovery	timeouts, connections, reliability	Configure Connection Timeouts	true

Configure Connection Timeouts

Configure appropriate timeout values to improve your application's connection resilience. While most Redis clients set default timeouts, choosing well-tuned values based on your application's usage patterns leads to better failure recovery.

Correct: Set timeouts based on your application needs.

r = redis.Redis(
    host='localhost',
    socket_timeout=5.0,         # Read/write timeout - tune based on expected operation time
    socket_connect_timeout=2.0,  # Connection timeout - shorter for fast failure detection
    retry_on_timeout=True        # Automatic retry on timeout
)

Incorrect: Relying solely on defaults without considering your use case.

# Not ideal: Default timeouts may not match your application's needs
r = redis.Redis(host='localhost')

# For example, if your app needs fast failure detection,
# the default timeouts might be too generous

Considerations:

• Set socket_connect_timeout shorter than socket_timeout for quick connection failure detection
• For latency-sensitive apps, use tighter timeouts with retry logic
• For batch operations, allow longer timeouts to complete large operations
• Consider using health checks alongside timeouts for robust failure handling

Reference: Redis Client Configuration