As a developer I want jitter added to Anthropic API retry backoff so I can prevent thundering-herd during outages

[ChristopherRotnes]

Summary

The retry loop in claude.js uses a plain exponential backoff (2^attempt * 1000ms) with no jitter. During an Anthropic 529 overload with many concurrent users, all clients would retry at the same intervals, creating synchronized burst traffic rather than spreading load. Adding randomized jitter is a minor, low-risk change that improves resilience.

Priority

Low

Acceptance criteria

• Retry delay uses exponential backoff with random jitter, e.g. (2 ** attempt * 1000) + Math.random() * 500
• Maximum delay is still capped at a reasonable ceiling (e.g. 32s)
• Existing retry behavior on 529 is otherwise unchanged