Inline Azure Service Bus endpoint dead-letters immediately instead of using ASB native redelivery #2850

jvarsl · 2026-05-19T20:15:28Z

jvarsl
May 19, 2026

Summary

^{Posting here since I don't have Discord and haven't found this topic indexed on Google.}

I'm trying to use Wolverine with Azure Service Bus inline processing in a way where Azure Service Bus controls redelivery and DLQ behavior.

My expectation was for demo code below:

ASB-native redelivery until MaxDeliveryCount = 2 was exceeded

sequenceDiagram
  participant P as Publisher
  participant Q as ASB queue
  participant H as Main handler
  participant D as ASB DLQ
  participant DH as DLQ handler

  P->>Q: publish
  Q->>H: delivery #1
  H-->>Q: unhandled exception
  Q->>H: delivery #2 (MaxDeliveryCount = 2)
  H-->>Q: unhandled exception
  Q->>D: move to DLQ
  D->>DH: deliver DLQ message

I see a single main delivery followed by immediate DLQ delivery (logs at the bottom of post)

sequenceDiagram
  participant P as Publisher
  participant Q as ASB queue
  participant H as Main handler
  participant D as ASB DLQ
  participant DH as DLQ handler

  P->>Q: publish
  Q->>H: delivery #1
  H-->>Q: unhandled exception
  Q->>D: move to DLQ immediately
  D->>DH: deliver DLQ message

What I am trying to understand

This expectation comes from the inline endpoint docs:

Source: Runtime Architecture → Inline Endpoints

So my expectation was that Wolverine would just:

poll the queue
resolve the handler
do its tracing/log correlation work via envelope
complete the message only on success
otherwise let ASB handle redelivery / lock timeout / MaxDeliveryCount

Am I expecting the wrong thing here, or can Wolverine be configured to behave like that? Since it feels does more even though I try to disable its behavior via .DisableDeadLetterQueueing().ProcessInline();

Demo

WolverineASBEmulator.csproj

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Web">

  <PropertyGroup>
    <TargetFramework>net10.0</TargetFramework>
    <Nullable>enable</Nullable>
    <ImplicitUsings>enable</ImplicitUsings>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <PackageReference Include="Testcontainers" Version="4.12.0" />
    <PackageReference Include="Testcontainers.ServiceBus" Version="4.12.0" />
    <PackageReference Include="WolverineFx" Version="5.39.3" />
    <PackageReference Include="WolverineFx.AzureServiceBus" Version="5.39.3" />
  </ItemGroup>

</Project>

Program.cs

using System.Text.Json;
using Testcontainers.ServiceBus;
using Wolverine;
using Wolverine.Attributes;
using Wolverine.AzureServiceBus;

var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder(args);

builder.Logging.ClearProviders();
builder.Logging.AddSimpleConsole(options =>
{
  options.TimestampFormat = "yyyy-MM-ddTHH:mm:ss.fff zzz ";
  options.SingleLine = false;
});

const string serviceBusName = "service-bus";
const string queueName = QueueNames.Events;
const string dlqQueueName = QueueNames.EventsDlq;

ServiceBusContainer serviceBusContainer = new ServiceBusBuilder()
    .WithResourceMapping(GetServiceBusConfigurationPath(), "/ServiceBus_Emulator/ConfigFiles/")
    .WithAcceptLicenseAgreement(true)
    .Build();

try
{
  await serviceBusContainer.StartAsync();
  var connectionString = serviceBusContainer.GetConnectionString();

  builder.UseWolverine(x =>
  {
    x.ListenToAzureServiceBusQueue(queueName)
          .DisableDeadLetterQueueing()
          .ProcessInline();

    x.ListenToAzureServiceBusQueue(dlqQueueName)
          .DisableDeadLetterQueueing()
          .ProcessInline();

    x.PublishMessage<DummyEventMessage>().ToAzureServiceBusQueue(queueName);

    x.UseAzureServiceBus(connectionString).SystemQueuesAreEnabled(false);
  });

  var app = builder.Build();

  app.Lifetime.ApplicationStarted.Register(() =>
  {
    _ = Task.Run(async () =>
      {
        using var scope = app.Services.CreateScope();
        var messageBus = scope.ServiceProvider.GetRequiredService<IMessageBus>();
        var loggerFactory = scope.ServiceProvider.GetRequiredService<ILoggerFactory>();
        var logger = loggerFactory.CreateLogger("StartupPublisher");

        var message = new DummyEventMessage(Guid.NewGuid().ToString("N"), DateTimeOffset.UtcNow);
        logger.LogInformation("[START] Publishing startup dummy message: {Message}", message);

        await messageBus.PublishAsync(message);
      });
  });

  await app.RunAsync();
}
finally
{
  await serviceBusContainer.DisposeAsync();
}

static string GetServiceBusConfigurationPath()
{
  string emulatorConfig = $@"
{{
  ""UserConfig"": {{
    ""Namespaces"": [
      {{
        ""Name"": ""{serviceBusName}"",
        ""Queues"": [
          {{
            ""Name"": ""{queueName}"",
            ""Properties"": {{
              ""LockDuration"": ""PT10S"",
              ""MaxDeliveryCount"": 2
            }}
          }}
        ],
        ""Topics"": []
      }}
    ],
    ""Logging"": {{
      ""Type"": ""File""
    }}
  }}
}}
";
  var configDir = Directory.CreateTempSubdirectory("servicebus-config_").FullName;
  var expectedServiceBusConfigFileName = "Config.json";
  var configFilePath = Path.Combine(configDir, expectedServiceBusConfigFileName);
  File.WriteAllText(configFilePath, emulatorConfig);
  return configFilePath;
}

[StickyHandler(QueueNames.Events)]
public static class EventMessageHandler
{
  public static void Handle(
      DummyEventMessage message,
      Envelope envelope,
      ILogger logger)
  {
    logger.LogWarning(
      "[MAIN] Received message: {Message}. Envelope={Envelope}",
      message,
      JsonSerializer.Serialize(envelope, new JsonSerializerOptions { WriteIndented = true }));

    throw new InvalidOperationException("Simulated processing failure in main handler.");
  }
}

[StickyHandler(QueueNames.EventsDlq)]
public static class DlqMessageHandler
{
  public static void Handle(DummyEventMessage message, Envelope envelope, ILogger logger)
  {
    logger.LogWarning(
      "[DLQ] Received message: {Message}. Envelope={Envelope}",
      message,
      JsonSerializer.Serialize(envelope, new JsonSerializerOptions { WriteIndented = true }));
  }
}

public static class QueueNames
{
  public const string Events = "events";
  public const string EventsDlq = "events/$deadletterqueue";
}

public record DummyEventMessage(string Id, DateTimeOffset CreatedAtUtc);

Full logs

[testcontainers.org 00:00:00.24] Connected to Docker:
  Host: tcp://127.0.0.1:2375/
  Server Version: 28.1.1
  Kernel Version: 6.6.87.2-microsoft-standard-WSL2
  API Version: 1.49
  Operating System: Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS
  Total Memory: 15.35 GB
[testcontainers.org 00:00:00.32] Docker network dc50fa0fe79f created
[testcontainers.org 00:00:00.54] Docker container 97b08c2f184b created
[testcontainers.org 00:00:00.59] Start Docker container 97b08c2f184b
[testcontainers.org 00:00:00.83] Wait for Docker container 97b08c2f184b to complete readiness checks
[testcontainers.org 00:00:01.90] Docker container 97b08c2f184b ready
[testcontainers.org 00:00:01.96] Docker container 8855a108668c created
[testcontainers.org 00:00:01.97] Start Docker container 8855a108668c
[testcontainers.org 00:00:02.17] Wait for Docker container 8855a108668c to complete readiness checks
[testcontainers.org 00:00:02.18] Execute "/bin/sh -c find /opt/mssql-tools*/bin/sqlcmd -type f -print -quit" at Docker container 8855a108668c
[testcontainers.org 00:00:02.30] Execute "/opt/mssql-tools18/bin/sqlcmd -C -Q SELECT 1;" at Docker container 8855a108668c
[testcontainers.org 00:00:07.97] Docker container 8855a108668c ready
[testcontainers.org 00:00:08.01] Docker container ddf7f3e09b2b created
[testcontainers.org 00:00:08.02] Add file to tar archive: Content length: 368 byte(s), Target file: "/ServiceBus_Emulator/ConfigFiles/Config.json", UID: 0, GID: 0, Mode: 0644
[testcontainers.org 00:00:08.03] Copy tar archive to container: Content length: 368 byte(s), Docker container: ddf7f3e09b2b
[testcontainers.org 00:00:08.05] Start Docker container ddf7f3e09b2b
[testcontainers.org 00:00:08.28] Wait for Docker container ddf7f3e09b2b to complete readiness checks
[testcontainers.org 00:00:16.52] Docker container ddf7f3e09b2b ready
2026-05-19T22:08:39.336 +03:00 info: Wolverine.Runtime.WolverineRuntime[0]
      Exporting Open Telemetry metrics from Wolverine with name Wolverine:WolverineASBEmulator, version 5.39.3.0
2026-05-19T22:08:39.357 +03:00 info: Wolverine.Runtime.WolverineRuntime[0]
      Starting Wolverine messaging for application assembly WolverineASBEmulator, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null
2026-05-19T22:08:39.357 +03:00 info: Wolverine.Runtime.WolverineRuntime[0]
      The Wolverine code generation mode is Dynamic. This is suitable for development, but you may want to opt into other options for production usage to reduce start up time and resource utilization.
2026-05-19T22:08:39.357 +03:00 info: Wolverine.Runtime.WolverineRuntime[0]
      See https://wolverine.netlify.app/guide/codegen.html for more information
2026-05-19T22:08:39.365 +03:00 info: Wolverine.Configuration.HandlerDiscovery[0]
      Searching assembly WolverineASBEmulator, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null for Wolverine message handlers
2026-05-19T22:08:39.406 +03:00 info: Wolverine.Runtime.WolverineRuntime[0]
      Wolverine assigned node id for envelope persistence is -2135505123
2026-05-19T22:08:39.413 +03:00 info: Wolverine.Runtime.WolverineRuntime[0]
      Initializing the Wolverine AzureServiceBusTransport
2026-05-19T22:08:39.518 +03:00 info: Wolverine.Transports.ListeningAgent[0]
      Started message listening at stub://replies/
2026-05-19T22:08:39.590 +03:00 info: Wolverine.Transports.ListeningAgent[0]
      Started message listening at asb://queue/events%2F%24deadletterqueue
2026-05-19T22:08:39.590 +03:00 info: Wolverine.Transports.ListeningAgent[0]
      Started message listening at asb://queue/events
2026-05-19T22:08:39.840 +03:00 info: Microsoft.Hosting.Lifetime[14]
      Now listening on: https://localhost:7228
2026-05-19T22:08:39.841 +03:00 info: Microsoft.Hosting.Lifetime[14]
      Now listening on: http://localhost:5203
2026-05-19T22:08:39.893 +03:00 info: Microsoft.Hosting.Lifetime[0]
      Application started. Press Ctrl+C to shut down.
2026-05-19T22:08:39.893 +03:00 info: Microsoft.Hosting.Lifetime[0]
      Hosting environment: Development
2026-05-19T22:08:39.893 +03:00 info: Microsoft.Hosting.Lifetime[0]
      Content root path: C:\Users\Apple\source\repos\playground\WolverineASBEmulator\WolverineASBEmulator
2026-05-19T22:08:39.900 +03:00 info: StartupPublisher[0]
      [START] Publishing startup dummy message: DummyEventMessage { Id = e82d380b6ae34f23a7b755d464f1e802, CreatedAtUtc = 2026-05-19 19:08:39 +00:00 }
2026-05-19T22:08:42.362 +03:00 warn: DummyEventMessage[0]
      [MAIN] Received message: DummyEventMessage { Id = e82d380b6ae34f23a7b755d464f1e802, CreatedAtUtc = 2026-05-19 19:08:39 +00:00 }. Envelope={
        "Headers": {
          "conversation-id": "08deb5da-0985-3e70-acb4-80d8a3f90000",
          "source": "WolverineASBEmulator",
          "reply-uri": "asb://queue/events%2F%24deadletterqueue",
          "sent-at": "2026-05-19 19:08:39:911662 Z",
          "accepted-content-types": "application/json",
          "attempts": "0",
          "wolverine-protocol-version": "1.0"
        },
        "DeliverBy": null,
        "AckRequested": false,
        "ScheduledTime": null,
        "ScheduleDelay": null,
        "Data": "eyJpZCI6ImU4MmQzODBiNmFlMzRmMjNhN2I3NTVkNDY0ZjFlODAyIiwiY3JlYXRlZEF0VXRjIjoiMjAyNi0wNS0xOVQxOTowODozOS44OTk0ODA0KzAwOjAwIn0=",
        "Message": {
          "Id": "e82d380b6ae34f23a7b755d464f1e802",
          "CreatedAtUtc": "2026-05-19T19:08:39.8994804+00:00"
        },
        "Attempts": 1,
        "SendAttempts": 0,
        "SentAt": "2026-05-19T19:08:39.911662+00:00",
        "Source": "WolverineASBEmulator",
        "MessageType": "DummyEventMessage",
        "ReplyUri": "asb://queue/events%2F%24deadletterqueue",
        "ContentType": "application/json",
        "CorrelationId": "a7b3127b-aed0-4e13-938e-f8103791f216",
        "SagaId": null,
        "ConversationId": "08deb5da-0985-3e70-acb4-80d8a3f90000",
        "Destination": "asb://queue/events",
        "ParentId": null,
        "TenantId": null,
        "UserName": null,
        "AcceptedContentTypes": [
          "application/json"
        ],
        "Id": "08deb5da-0985-3e70-acb4-80d8a3f90000",
        "ReplyRequested": null,
        "TopicName": null,
        "EndpointName": null,
        "WasPersistedInOutbox": false,
        "GroupId": null,
        "DeduplicationId": null,
        "PartitionKey": null,
        "Offset": 0,
        "PartitionId": null,
        "KeepUntil": null
      }
2026-05-19T22:08:42.441 +03:00 fail: DummyEventMessage[105]
      Failed to process message DummyEventMessage#08deb5da-0985-3e70-acb4-80d8a3f90000 from asb://queue/events
      System.InvalidOperationException: Simulated processing failure in main handler.
         at EventMessageHandler.Handle(DummyEventMessage message, Envelope envelope, ILogger logger) in C:\Users\Apple\source\repos\playground\WolverineASBEmulator\WolverineASBEmulator\Program.cs:line 116
         at Internal.Generated.WolverineHandlers.EventMessageHandlerHandler1047199109.HandleAsync(MessageContext context, CancellationToken cancellation)
         at Wolverine.Runtime.Handlers.Executor.ExecuteAsync(MessageContext context, CancellationToken cancellation) in /home/runner/work/wolverine/wolverine/src/Wolverine/Runtime/Handlers/Executor.cs:line 204
2026-05-19T22:08:42.690 +03:00 warn: DummyEventMessage[0]
      [DLQ] Received message: DummyEventMessage { Id = e82d380b6ae34f23a7b755d464f1e802, CreatedAtUtc = 2026-05-19 19:08:39 +00:00 }. Envelope={
        "Headers": {
          "conversation-id": "08deb5da-0985-3e70-acb4-80d8a3f90000",
          "source": "WolverineASBEmulator",
          "reply-uri": "asb://queue/events%2F%24deadletterqueue",
          "sent-at": "2026-05-19 19:08:39:911662 Z",
          "accepted-content-types": "application/json",
          "attempts": "0",
          "wolverine-protocol-version": "1.0",
          "DeadLetterReason": "InvalidOperationException",
          "DeadLetterErrorDescription": "Simulated processing failure in main handler."
        },
        "DeliverBy": null,
        "AckRequested": false,
        "ScheduledTime": null,
        "ScheduleDelay": null,
        "Data": "eyJpZCI6ImU4MmQzODBiNmFlMzRmMjNhN2I3NTVkNDY0ZjFlODAyIiwiY3JlYXRlZEF0VXRjIjoiMjAyNi0wNS0xOVQxOTowODozOS44OTk0ODA0KzAwOjAwIn0=",
        "Message": {
          "Id": "e82d380b6ae34f23a7b755d464f1e802",
          "CreatedAtUtc": "2026-05-19T19:08:39.8994804+00:00"
        },
        "Attempts": 1,
        "SendAttempts": 0,
        "SentAt": "2026-05-19T19:08:39.911662+00:00",
        "Source": "WolverineASBEmulator",
        "MessageType": "DummyEventMessage",
        "ReplyUri": "asb://queue/events%2F%24deadletterqueue",
        "ContentType": "application/json",
        "CorrelationId": "a7b3127b-aed0-4e13-938e-f8103791f216",
        "SagaId": null,
        "ConversationId": "08deb5da-0985-3e70-acb4-80d8a3f90000",
        "Destination": "asb://queue/events%2F%24deadletterqueue",
        "ParentId": null,
        "TenantId": null,
        "UserName": null,
        "AcceptedContentTypes": [
          "application/json"
        ],
        "Id": "08deb5da-0985-3e70-acb4-80d8a3f90000",
        "ReplyRequested": null,
        "TopicName": null,
        "EndpointName": null,
        "WasPersistedInOutbox": false,
        "GroupId": null,
        "DeduplicationId": null,
        "PartitionKey": null,
        "Offset": 0,
        "PartitionId": null,
        "KeepUntil": null
      }
2026-05-19T22:08:42.690 +03:00 info: DummyEventMessage[104]
      Successfully processed message DummyEventMessage#08deb5da-0985-3e70-acb4-80d8a3f90000 from asb://queue/events%2F%24deadletterqueue
2026-05-19T22:08:42.864 +03:00 fail: Wolverine.Runtime.WolverineRuntime[108]
      Envelope Envelope #08deb5da-0985-3e70-acb4-80d8a3f90000/CorrelationId=a7b3127b-aed0-4e13-938e-f8103791f216 (DummyEventMessage) from WolverineASBEmulator to asb://queue/events was moved to the error queue
      System.InvalidOperationException: Simulated processing failure in main handler.
         at EventMessageHandler.Handle(DummyEventMessage message, Envelope envelope, ILogger logger) in C:\Users\Apple\source\repos\playground\WolverineASBEmulator\WolverineASBEmulator\Program.cs:line 116
         at Internal.Generated.WolverineHandlers.EventMessageHandlerHandler1047199109.HandleAsync(MessageContext context, CancellationToken cancellation)
         at Wolverine.Runtime.Handlers.Executor.ExecuteAsync(MessageContext context, CancellationToken cancellation) in /home/runner/work/wolverine/wolverine/src/Wolverine/Runtime/Handlers/Executor.cs:line 204

jeremydmiller · 2026-05-19T20:20:24Z

jeremydmiller
May 19, 2026
Maintainer

@jvarsl Start by reading the docs please: https://wolverinefx.io/guide/handlers/error-handling.html

3 replies

jvarsl May 19, 2026
Author

Doesn’t the documentation contradict itself across different places then regarding inline support and behavior? My goal was specifically to avoid custom Wolverine error handling and use native broker behavior via inline processing.

From the generic listener docs:

https://wolverinefx.net/guide/messaging/listeners

With Inline endpoints, the basic processing of messages is:
Depending on whether the message execution succeeds or fails, the message is either "ack-ed" or "nack-ed" to the underlying transport broker

I interpreted “nack-ed” plus DisableDeadLetterQueueing to mean broker-native redelivery behavior, e.g. abandon / unlock / redelivery rather than Wolverine immediately moving the message.
From the ASB dead-letter docs:

https://wolverinefx.net/guide/messaging/transports/azureservicebus/deadletterqueues.html

For inline endpoints, Wolverine uses native Azure Service Bus dead letter queueing
Note that inline endpoints do not use Wolverine's inbox for message persistence, so retries and dead lettering rely entirely on Azure Service Bus mechanisms.
But the ASB listening docs say:

https://wolverinefx.net/guide/messaging/transports/azureservicebus/listening

there is no current option for inline senders or listeners.

jvarsl May 20, 2026
Author

So it seems Wolverine always wants to act on message during error (internal retries, deleting, moving to DLQ) and cannot just abandon the message for ASB to handle redeliveries/DLQ since ServiceBusProcessor auto completes the message as exception does not emerge. I can't recall a library where I had to read so much documentation and view videos and still hit a wall.

jeremydmiller May 20, 2026
Maintainer

Sorry to hear that, but at the same time, I haven't heard that particular complaint from anyone else. Why were you expecting to be able to do this instead of relying on the asynchronous messaging framework? I'm not sure I'm aware of any other messaging tool that behaves the way you're describing.

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Inline Azure Service Bus endpoint dead-letters immediately instead of using ASB native redelivery #2850

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jvarsl May 19, 2026

Summary

What I am trying to understand

Demo

WolverineASBEmulator.csproj

Program.cs

Full logs

Replies: 1 comment · 3 replies

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jeremydmiller May 19, 2026 Maintainer

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jvarsl
May 19, 2026

Replies: 1 comment 3 replies

jeremydmiller
May 19, 2026
Maintainer

jvarsl May 19, 2026
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jvarsl May 20, 2026
Author

jeremydmiller May 20, 2026
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