diff --git a/lib/definitions/retry.js b/lib/definitions/retry.js
index 06d7991b..9b5021c3 100644
--- a/lib/definitions/retry.js
+++ b/lib/definitions/retry.js
@@ -1,8 +1,9 @@
 /**
- * Default exponential backoff configuration for retries.
+ * Default retry config for octokit retry plugin
  */
 export const RETRY_CONF = {
   // By default, Octokit does not retry on 404s.
   // But we want to retry on 404s to account for replication lag.
   doNotRetry: [400, 401, 403, 422],
+  retries: 3,
 };