houhou — Resilience Policies for TypeScript Async Functions

The problem Most resilience libraries in the TypeScript ecosystem are tied to HTTP clients (axios-retry, p-retry, Polly.js) or require wrapping your function in a class with a .execute() ceremony. What if you just want to wrap any async function — a database query, an internal service call, a file operation — with retry logic, a timeout, and a circuit breaker, without pulling in heavy dependencies? Enter houhou . What is houhou? Houhou is a zero-dependency TypeScript library (~500 LOC) that wraps any async function with composable resilience policies. The wrapped function keeps the exact same signature — you call it like the original. import { task } from ' houhou ' const charge = task ( chargeCard ) . retry ( 3 ) . timeout ( 10 _000 ) . fallback (() => ({ status : ' pending ' })) await charge ( account , amount ) Policies at a glance Retry Re-execute on failure with fixed or exponential backoff: task ( fetchUser ). retry ( 3 ) // shorthand task ( fetchUser ). retry ({ attempts : 5 , backoff : ' exponential ' , jitter : true , delay : 500 }) Timeout Reject if the function doesn't complete in time: task ( fetchUser ). timeout ( 5000 ) Fallback Run an alternative function on failure: task ( fetchUser ). fallback (() => loadFromCache ( id )) Circuit Breaker Prevent repeated calls to an unhealthy service: task ( queryDb ). circuitBreaker ({ failureThreshold : 5 , successThreshold : 2 , resetTimeout : 30 _000 }) Delay Wait before execution: task ( syncData ). delay ( 1000 ) Policy ordering matters Policies are nested : the last method called wraps the previous ones. Execution order is reverse of declaration order. task ( fn ). retry ( 3 ). timeout ( 1000 ) // → timeout wraps retry // → function runs → retry on failure (up to 3 times) → 1s total timeout // → if the timeout fires, there are no more retries task ( fn ). timeout ( 1000 ). retry ( 3 ) // → retry wraps timeout // → function runs → 1s timeout → if timeout fires, retry catches it // → the whole cycle repeats up