diff --git a/services/agents/specialists.py b/services/agents/specialists.py
index 921124d..be19b2a 100644
--- a/services/agents/specialists.py
+++ b/services/agents/specialists.py
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 from .tools import call_tool
 from services.index.retrieve import find_precedents
+from services.common.breaker import CircuitBreaker
+
+_pre_breaker = CircuitBreaker(fails=5, reset_after=30)
 
 
 def coverage_node(state: dict) -> dict:
@@ -22,8 +25,12 @@ def cost_node(state: dict) -> dict:
 def precedent_node(state: dict) -> dict:
     r = state["record"]
     text = f"{r['incident_type']} {r['severity']} damage. {r['notes_summary']}"
-    hits = find_precedents(state["image_path"], text, k=5)
-    return {"precedents": hits}
+    try:
+        hits = _pre_breaker.call(find_precedents, state["image_path"], text, k=5)
+        return {"precedents": hits}
+    except Exception:
+        # degraded: no precedents → flag so the synthesiser escalates
+        return {"precedents": [], "degraded": True}
 
 
 def fraud_node(state: dict) -> dict:
diff --git a/services/agents/synthesiser.py b/services/agents/synthesiser.py
index 1e15b67..8227a9e 100644
--- a/services/agents/synthesiser.py
+++ b/services/agents/synthesiser.py
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 from .schema import Recommendation
 
 load_dotenv()
-client = anthropic.Anthropic()
+client = anthropic.Anthropic(max_retries=4, timeout=60.0)
 langfuse = get_client()
 MODEL = os.getenv("ANTHROPIC_MODEL", "claude-sonnet-4-5")
 
diff --git a/services/common/breaker.py b/services/common/breaker.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ad6e09b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/services/common/breaker.py
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+import time
+
+
+class CircuitBreaker:
+    """Open after N failures; reject fast; half-open to test recovery."""
+    def __init__(self, fails=5, reset_after=30):
+        self.fails, self.reset_after = fails, reset_after
+        self.count, self.opened_at = 0, None
+
+    def call(self, fn, *a, **k):
+        if self.opened_at:                       # breaker is OPEN
+            if time.time() - self.opened_at < self.reset_after:
+                raise RuntimeError("circuit open — dependency unavailable")
+            self.opened_at = None  # half-open: try once
+            self.count = 0
+        try:
+            r = fn(*a, **k)
+            self.count = 0  # success resets
+            return r
+        except Exception:
+            self.count += 1
+            if self.count >= self.fails:
+                self.opened_at = time.time()         # trip OPEN
+            raise
diff --git a/services/common/resilient.py b/services/common/resilient.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6cfa5ca
--- /dev/null
+++ b/services/common/resilient.py
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+from tenacity import (retry, stop_after_attempt, wait_exponential_jitter,
+                      retry_if_exception_type)
+
+# retry transient network/5xx; backoff 1s,2s,4s... with jitter; 4 tries
+external_retry = retry(
+    stop=stop_after_attempt(4),
+    wait=wait_exponential_jitter(initial=1, max=10),
+    retry=retry_if_exception_type((ConnectionError, TimeoutError, Exception)),
+    reraise=True)
+
+# usage: decorate the embed + pinecone calls
+#   @external_retry
+#   def embed_text(...): ...
diff --git a/services/ingest/extractor.py b/services/ingest/extractor.py
index 9b2ea8c..6b2ff21 100644
--- a/services/ingest/extractor.py
+++ b/services/ingest/extractor.py
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@
 load_dotenv()
 
 # ── clients & config ───────────────────────────────────────────────
-client = anthropic.Anthropic()              # reads ANTHROPIC_API_KEY from env
+client = anthropic.Anthropic(max_retries=4, timeout=60.0)  # reads ANTHROPIC_API_KEY from env
 langfuse = get_client()                       # reads LANGFUSE_* from env
 MODEL = os.getenv("ANTHROPIC_MODEL", "claude-sonnet-4-5")