Why it matters
Flapping matters because teams need a precise shared meaning for rapid oscillation between healthy and failed states. Vague language turns incidents into arguments about words instead of fixes.
When everyone uses the same definition, alerts, status updates, and post-incident reviews stay aligned.
How it works
In practice, rapid oscillation between healthy and failed states shows up as a concrete signal you can measure or communicate. Operators define what good looks like, watch for deviations, and record what happened when expectations break.
The useful version of flapping is operational: it changes who gets notified, what customers see, or which metric a team reviews after an incident.
Practical example
Imagine a team operating around api.example.com alternating pass and fail each minute. When observed behavior stops matching the definition of flapping, the team treats that change as a reliability event with a clear owner and next step.
Common misconception
Flapping is the same as a planned deploy
That reading usually collapses distinct ideas into one slogan. Keep flapping tied to observable behavior so the definition stays useful under pressure.
How Fajita handles this
Fajita surfaces flapping so teams do not resolve and reopen endlessly.