App-vNext/Polly · error · ArgumentOutOfRangeException

Value must be greater than zero.

Error message

Value must be greater than zero.

What it means

Thrown by the legacy v7 Polly AdvancedCircuitBreaker<T> syntax when the failureThreshold argument is zero or negative. failureThreshold is the failure ratio (0,1] at which the advanced circuit opens, so any value <= 0 is meaningless. The guard fires at policy BUILD time (inside the syntax extension), not when the policy executes.

Source

Thrown at src/Polly/CircuitBreaker/AdvancedCircuitBreakerTResultSyntax.cs:228

    /// <exception cref="ArgumentNullException">Thrown when <paramref name="onBreak"/> is <see langword="null"/>.</exception>
    /// <exception cref="ArgumentNullException">Thrown when <paramref name="onReset"/> is <see langword="null"/>.</exception>
    /// <exception cref="ArgumentNullException">Thrown when <paramref name="onHalfOpen"/> is <see langword="null"/>.</exception>
    /// <remarks>(see "Release It!" by Michael T. Nygard fi).</remarks>
    public static CircuitBreakerPolicy<TResult> AdvancedCircuitBreaker<TResult>(
        this PolicyBuilder<TResult> policyBuilder,
        double failureThreshold,
        TimeSpan samplingDuration,
        int minimumThroughput,
        TimeSpan durationOfBreak,
        Action<DelegateResult<TResult>, CircuitState, TimeSpan, Context> onBreak,
        Action<Context> onReset,
        Action onHalfOpen)
    {
        var resolutionOfCircuit = TimeSpan.FromTicks(AdvancedCircuitController<EmptyStruct>.ResolutionOfCircuitTimer);

        if (failureThreshold <= 0)
        {
            throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException(nameof(failureThreshold), "Value must be greater than zero.");
        }

        if (failureThreshold > 1)
        {
            throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException(nameof(failureThreshold), "Value must be less than or equal to one.");
        }

        if (samplingDuration < resolutionOfCircuit)
        {
            throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException(nameof(samplingDuration), $"Value must be equal to or greater than {resolutionOfCircuit.TotalMilliseconds} milliseconds. This is the minimum resolution of the CircuitBreaker timer.");
        }

        if (minimumThroughput <= 1)
        {
            throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException(nameof(minimumThroughput), "Value must be greater than one.");
        }

        if (durationOfBreak < TimeSpan.Zero)

View on GitHub (pinned to d0e46bdb1e)

Solutions

1. Set failureThreshold to a ratio strictly greater than 0 and at most 1, e.g. 0.5 for 50%.
2. If the value comes from configuration, validate it is in (0,1] before passing it to the policy.
3. When computing a ratio dynamically, guard against a zero denominator before division.

Example fix

// before
Policy.Handle<HttpRequestException>()
    .AdvancedCircuitBreaker(
        failureThreshold: 0,
        samplingDuration: TimeSpan.FromSeconds(10),
        minimumThroughput: 10,
        durationOfBreak: TimeSpan.FromSeconds(30),
        onBreak: (_, __, ___, ____) => { },
        onReset: _ => { },
        onHalfOpen: () => { });

// after
Policy.Handle<HttpRequestException>()
    .AdvancedCircuitBreaker(
        failureThreshold: 0.5,
        samplingDuration: TimeSpan.FromSeconds(10),
        minimumThroughput: 10,
        durationOfBreak: TimeSpan.FromSeconds(30),
        onBreak: (_, __, ___, ____) => { },
        onReset: _ => { },
        onHalfOpen: () => { });

if (failureThreshold <= 0 || failureThreshold > 1)
    throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException(nameof(failureThreshold), "failureThreshold must be in (0,1].");

static bool IsValidFailureThreshold(double t) => t > 0 && t <= 1;

When it happens

Trigger: Calling Policy.Handle<...>().AdvancedCircuitBreaker(failureThreshold: 0, ...) or AdvancedCircuitBreaker(failureThreshold: -0.5, ...). The check is `failureThreshold <= 0`.

Common situations: Configuring the threshold from a config file where the value is missing/defaulted to 0, or computing it as failures/total when total is 0 (yielding 0). Passing an integer literal 0 where a percentage was intended (e.g. thinking 0 means 0%).

Related errors

• Value must be less than or equal to one.
• Value must be greater than one.
• Value must be greater than zero.
• Value must be less than or equal to one.
• Value must be greater than one.

AI-assisted analysis of App-vNext/Polly@d0e46bdb1e (2026-08-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d3dc9e732cd1c861. Report an issue: GitHub.