--- title: What it means to build boring | daily.dev description: Durable execution platform Inngest is framed as the answer to making AI agents reliable, arguing that reliability for agents is really the same infrastructure... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/what-it-means-to-build-boring-eyxqy54j0 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: What it means to build boring | daily.dev og:description: Durable execution platform Inngest is framed as the answer to making AI agents reliable, arguing that reliability for agents is really the same infrastructure... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/what-it-means-to-build-boring-eyxqy54j0 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/eYXqy54J0.png og:image:alt: What it means to build boring og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # What it means to build boring **[Inngest Blog](https://daily.dev/sources/inngest)** · 11 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Durable execution platform Inngest is framed as the answer to making AI agents reliable, arguing that reliability for agents is really the same infrastructure problem already solved for queues and cron jobs. The piece walks through Inngest's mechanics: step-level retries and memoization, fan-out for parallel work, singleton and concurrency controls to prevent colliding runs, throttling/rate-limiting/debounce/priority for flow control, waitForEvent and sleep for human-in-the-loop pauses, and automatic tracing for observability. The core argument is that splitting 'is the answer good' (a model/eval problem) from 'did the run finish on a defined path' (an infrastructure problem) is what makes agent systems predictable and 'boring.' ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How do I prevent two runs of the same AI agent from overwriting each other's work, like editing the same repo? Use a singleton configuration keyed on a unique identifier, such as a repository ID, so only one run per key exists at a time. The 'skip' mode ignores new triggers while a run is in progress, which fits a triage agent that will catch up next pass; the 'cancel' mode stops the current run and starts fresh with the newest event, which fits a drafting agent where the user changed their request. _Developers wiring up safe concurrent agent runs can find deeper patterns like this through daily.dev._ ### How can I make a failed step in an AI agent workflow retry without restarting the whole process? Completed steps get memoized: when a step fails, the function is called again from the top, but every step that already finished returns its saved result instantly instead of re-running, so a run that fails on step seven resumes at step seven. You can also throw a NonRetriableError to stop immediately on unrecoverable input, or a RetryAfterError to honor an API's requested backoff. _Anyone debugging flaky multi-step agent pipelines can track techniques like this via daily.dev._ ### What is the difference between throttling, rate limiting, and debounce for controlling how fast an AI agent processes events? Throttling queues excess work so it runs later without being lost, useful for staying under a model provider's rate limit. Rate limiting drops excess events entirely, useful for pointless repeats like re-indexing an already-indexed document. Debounce waits for a burst to settle and runs once with the latest event, useful for reacting to rapid typing or webhook bursts. _Teams tuning agent throughput against provider limits can keep up with approaches like this on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [How to Build AI Agents That Don’t Start Over When They Fail](https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-build-ai-agents-that-don-t-start-over-when-they-fail-hdtnqpnlp) · System Design Newsletter · 3 upvotes · 1 comments - [What dead f\*cking last taught me about durable execution](https://daily.dev/posts/what-dead-f-cking-last-taught-me-about-durable-execution-yk6qac90n) · Inngest Blog · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#ai-agents](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-agents), [#observability](https://daily.dev/tags/observability), [#workflow-orchestration](https://daily.dev/tags/workflow-orchestration), [#inngest](https://daily.dev/tags/inngest) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/what-it-means-to-build-boring-eyxqy54j0) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"What it means to build boring","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/what-it-means-to-build-boring-eyxqy54j0","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/what-it-means-to-build-boring-eyxqy54j0"},"datePublished":"2026-10-14T18:30:23.731Z","dateModified":"2026-10-14T18:30:59.231Z","description":"Durable execution platform Inngest is framed as the answer to making AI agents reliable, arguing that reliability for agents is really the same infrastructure...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/a029378a5a658a475c1c1f8de34963f9?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/a029378a5a658a475c1c1f8de34963f9?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Inngest Blog","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Inngest Blog","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--ieZKUa5y--/c_limit,w_256/f_auto,q_auto/v1789329423/logos/inngest?_a=BAMAMicg0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/inngest"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/what-it-means-to-build-boring-eyxqy54j0","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"ai-agents,observability,workflow-orchestration,inngest","timeRequired":"PT11M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Inngest Blog","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/inngest"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"What it means to build boring"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/what-it-means-to-build-boring-eyxqy54j0#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"How do I prevent two runs of the same AI agent from overwriting each other's work, like editing the same repo?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Use a singleton configuration keyed on a unique identifier, such as a repository ID, so only one run per key exists at a time. 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