diff --git a/apps/api/src/read/candidates.ts b/apps/api/src/read/candidates.ts
index 75d5d22..29435c1 100644
--- a/apps/api/src/read/candidates.ts
+++ b/apps/api/src/read/candidates.ts
@@ -18,7 +18,13 @@ candidates.get("/v2/collections/candidates", (c) =>
   cached(
     c,
     "collection-candidates:chosen:2",
-    { ttl: 86400, edge: 300, swr: 86400, staleKey: "collection-candidates:chosen:1" },
+    {
+      ttl: 86400,
+      edge: 300,
+      swr: 86400,
+      staleKey: "collection-candidates:chosen:1",
+      durableWrite: true,
+    },
     async (): Promise<Envelope<CollectionCandidatesPayload>> => {
       const seeds = await collectorCandidateSeeds(c.env.CORE_DB, SEED_LIMIT);
       const chosen = new Map<number, number>();
diff --git a/apps/api/src/read/respond.ts b/apps/api/src/read/respond.ts
index 4afe4a1..6a12b77 100644
--- a/apps/api/src/read/respond.ts
+++ b/apps/api/src/read/respond.ts
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ export const J = (c: Ctx, body: unknown, ttl = 30) =>
   });
 
 const CACHE_REFRESH_LEASE_SECONDS = 60;
+const CACHE_WRITE_RETRY_DELAYS_MS = [250, 750, 2_000, 4_000] as const;
 
 function primaryCacheDatabase(db: D1Database): D1Database {
   const session = db as unknown as { withSession?: (mode: string) => D1Database };
@@ -36,6 +37,29 @@ export async function claimCacheRefresh(db: D1Database, key: string, now: number
   return (result.meta.rows_written ?? 0) === 1;
 }
 
+const wait = (milliseconds: number) => new Promise<void>((resolve) => setTimeout(resolve, milliseconds));
+
+/**
+ * An expensive producer can briefly saturate D1, causing the immediately following cache INSERT to
+ * fail. Retrying only that explicit overload prevents a successful result from becoming an endless
+ * cold-cache recomputation loop; schema/auth/logic errors still fail immediately.
+ */
+export async function retryD1CacheWrite(
+  write: () => Promise<void>,
+  pause: (milliseconds: number) => Promise<void> = wait,
+): Promise<void> {
+  for (let attempt = 0; ; attempt++) {
+    try {
+      await write();
+      return;
+    } catch (error) {
+      const overloaded = error instanceof Error && error.message.includes("D1 DB is overloaded");
+      if (!overloaded || attempt >= CACHE_WRITE_RETRY_DELAYS_MS.length) throw error;
+      await pause(CACHE_WRITE_RETRY_DELAYS_MS[attempt]!);
+    }
+  }
+}
+
 /**
  * D1-backed response cache (the `cache` table: key, body, ctype, expires_at) with stale-while-revalidate.
  * Layer 2 above the per-colo edge cache: it PERSISTS across colos and cold edge, so a heavy aggregation
@@ -55,10 +79,12 @@ export async function cached(
      *  stale body serves immediately and the primary computes in the background, so a version
      *  bump never opens a cold window for readers. */
     staleKey?: string;
+    /** Require a successful cache publication before returning an expensive cold result. */
+    durableWrite?: boolean;
   },
   producer: () => Promise<unknown>,
 ): Promise<Response> {
-  const { ttl, edge = Math.min(ttl, 30), swr = ttl, staleKey } = opts;
+  const { ttl, edge = Math.min(ttl, 30), swr = ttl, staleKey, durableWrite = false } = opts;
   // Public query producers keep using the replica-local database from the route context. Cache rows
   // and their refresh lease use the primary so every colo observes one global coordination point.
   const cacheDb = primaryCacheDatabase(c.env.CORE_DB);
@@ -71,15 +97,18 @@ export async function cached(
     });
   const write = async (): Promise<string> => {
     const body = JSON.stringify(await producer());
-    await cacheDb
-      .prepare(
-        `INSERT INTO cache (key,body,ctype,expires_at,refreshing_until) VALUES (?,?,'application/json',?,0)
-       ON CONFLICT(key) DO UPDATE SET body=excluded.body, ctype=excluded.ctype,
-         expires_at=excluded.expires_at,refreshing_until=0`,
-      )
-      .bind(key, body, Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000) + ttl)
-      .run()
-      .catch(() => {});
+    const persist = async () => {
+      await cacheDb
+        .prepare(
+          `INSERT INTO cache (key,body,ctype,expires_at,refreshing_until) VALUES (?,?,'application/json',?,0)
+         ON CONFLICT(key) DO UPDATE SET body=excluded.body, ctype=excluded.ctype,
+           expires_at=excluded.expires_at,refreshing_until=0`,
+        )
+        .bind(key, body, Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000) + ttl)
+        .run();
+    };
+    if (durableWrite) await retryD1CacheWrite(persist);
+    else await persist().catch(() => {});
     return body;
   };
   const hit = await cacheDb
diff --git a/apps/api/tests/response-cache.test.ts b/apps/api/tests/response-cache.test.ts
index adecb2c..bdf1cc2 100644
--- a/apps/api/tests/response-cache.test.ts
+++ b/apps/api/tests/response-cache.test.ts
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 import assert from "node:assert/strict";
 import { DatabaseSync } from "node:sqlite";
 import { test } from "node:test";
-import { cached, claimCacheRefresh, type Ctx } from "#api/read/respond";
+import { cached, claimCacheRefresh, retryD1CacheWrite, type Ctx } from "#api/read/respond";
 
 class Statement {
   private args: unknown[] = [];
@@ -52,6 +52,35 @@ test("only one stale-cache request owns a refresh lease", async () => {
   sqlite.close();
 });
 
+test("durable cache publication retries only transient D1 overload", async () => {
+  let attempts = 0;
+  const delays: number[] = [];
+  await retryD1CacheWrite(
+    async () => {
+      attempts++;
+      if (attempts < 3) throw new Error("D1_ERROR: D1 DB is overloaded. Requests queued for too long.");
+    },
+    async (milliseconds) => {
+      delays.push(milliseconds);
+    },
+  );
+  assert.equal(attempts, 3);
+  assert.deepEqual(delays, [250, 750]);
+
+  attempts = 0;
+  await assert.rejects(
+    retryD1CacheWrite(
+      async () => {
+        attempts++;
+        throw new Error("D1_ERROR: no such table: cache");
+      },
+      async () => {},
+    ),
+    /no such table/,
+  );
+  assert.equal(attempts, 1);
+});
+
 test("a fresh hit is edge-cacheable for the configured window", async () => {
   const future = Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000) + 1_000;
   const { sqlite, db } = cacheDatabase([["k:v2", `{"n":2}`, future]]);