How do you prevent duplicate triggers across systems?

Multi-system automation creates duplicate risk at every boundary:

Duplicate causes: Same event sent from multiple sources. Retry logic reprocessing successful events. Sync processes running overlapping windows. Webhook delivery retries after timeout.

Prevention mechanisms: Unique event IDs: Assign unique identifier at event creation. Track processed IDs to reject duplicates. Deduplication windows: Ignore identical events within time window. Account for expected retry patterns. State tracking: Record event processing status. Check before processing each event. Idempotent design: Processing same event multiple times produces same result. No harm from duplicate processing.

Cross-system coordination: Use consistent event IDs across systems. Implement deduplication at each integration point. Design workflows assuming duplicates may occur.

Every system boundary is a potential duplication point. Defense requires layers of protection.