diff --git a/go/libraries/doltcore/doltdb/doltdb.go b/go/libraries/doltcore/doltdb/doltdb.go
index a7d81b508d..a95be4e82d 100644
--- a/go/libraries/doltcore/doltdb/doltdb.go
+++ b/go/libraries/doltcore/doltdb/doltdb.go
@@ -1222,6 +1222,13 @@ type ReplicationStatusController struct {
 	// associated with a commithook to complete. Must return if the
 	// associated Context is canceled.
 	Wait []func(ctx context.Context) error
+
+	// There is an entry here for each function in Wait. If a Wait fails,
+	// you can notify the corresponding function in this slice. This might
+	// control resiliency behaviors like adaptive retry and timeouts,
+	// circuit breakers, etc. and might feed into exposed replication
+	// metrics.
+	NotifyWaitFailed []func()
 }
 
 // UpdateWorkingSet updates the working set with the ref given to the root value given
diff --git a/go/libraries/doltcore/doltdb/hooksdatabase.go b/go/libraries/doltcore/doltdb/hooksdatabase.go
index 96bf911e3e..464bf48942 100644
--- a/go/libraries/doltcore/doltdb/hooksdatabase.go
+++ b/go/libraries/doltcore/doltdb/hooksdatabase.go
@@ -81,6 +81,7 @@ func (db hooksDatabase) ExecuteCommitHooks(ctx context.Context, ds datas.Dataset
 	rsc := getReplicaState(ctx)
 	if rsc != nil {
 		rsc.Wait = make([]func(context.Context) error, len(db.postCommitHooks))
+		rsc.NotifyWaitFailed = make([]func(), len(db.postCommitHooks))
 	}
 	for il, hook := range db.postCommitHooks {
 		if !onlyWS || hook.ExecuteForWorkingSets() {
@@ -95,6 +96,13 @@ func (db hooksDatabase) ExecuteCommitHooks(ctx context.Context, ds datas.Dataset
 				}
 				if rsc != nil {
 					rsc.Wait[i] = f
+					if nf, ok := hook.(interface{
+						NotifyWaitFailed()
+					}); ok {
+						rsc.NotifyWaitFailed[i] = nf.NotifyWaitFailed
+					} else {
+						rsc.NotifyWaitFailed[i] = func() {}
+					}
 				}
 			}()
 		}
@@ -105,10 +113,12 @@ func (db hooksDatabase) ExecuteCommitHooks(ctx context.Context, ds datas.Dataset
 		for i := range rsc.Wait {
 			if rsc.Wait[i] != nil {
 				rsc.Wait[j] = rsc.Wait[i]
+				rsc.NotifyWaitFailed[j] = rsc.NotifyWaitFailed[i]
 				j++
 			}
 		}
 		rsc.Wait = rsc.Wait[:j]
+		rsc.NotifyWaitFailed = rsc.NotifyWaitFailed[:j]
 	}
 }
 
diff --git a/go/libraries/doltcore/sqle/cluster/commithook.go b/go/libraries/doltcore/sqle/cluster/commithook.go
index f49ce7123d..475a9fc180 100644
--- a/go/libraries/doltcore/sqle/cluster/commithook.go
+++ b/go/libraries/doltcore/sqle/cluster/commithook.go
@@ -61,6 +61,12 @@ type commithook struct {
 	// 4. If you read a channel out of |successChs|, that channel will be closed on the next successful replication attempt. It will not be closed before then.
 	successChs []chan struct{}
 
+	// If this is true, the waitF returned by Execute() will fast fail if
+	// we are not already caught up, instead of blocking on a successCh
+	// actually indicated we are caught up. This is set to by a call to
+	// NotifyWaitFailed(), an optional interface on CommitHook.
+	circuitBreakerOpen bool
+
 	role Role
 
 	// The standby replica to which the new root gets replicated.
@@ -157,6 +163,7 @@ func (h *commithook) replicate(ctx context.Context) {
 				}
 				h.successChs = nil
 			}
+			h.circuitBreakerOpen = false
 			h.cond.Wait()
 			lgr.Tracef("cluster/commithook: background thread: woken up.")
 		}
@@ -406,22 +413,34 @@ func (h *commithook) Execute(ctx context.Context, ds datas.Dataset, db datas.Dat
 	}
 	var waitF func(context.Context) error
 	if !h.isCaughtUp() {
-		if len(h.successChs) == 0 {
-			h.successChs = append(h.successChs, make(chan struct{}))
-		}
-		successCh := h.successChs[0]
-		waitF = func(ctx context.Context) error {
-			select {
-			case <-successCh:
-				return nil
-			case <-ctx.Done():
-				return ctx.Err()
+		if h.circuitBreakerOpen {
+			waitF = func(ctx context.Context) error {
+				return fmt.Errorf("circuit breaker for replication to %s/%s is open. this commit did not necessarily replicate successfully.", h.remotename, h.dbname)
+			}
+		} else {
+			if len(h.successChs) == 0 {
+				h.successChs = append(h.successChs, make(chan struct{}))
+			}
+			successCh := h.successChs[0]
+			waitF = func(ctx context.Context) error {
+				select {
+				case <-successCh:
+					return nil
+				case <-ctx.Done():
+					return ctx.Err()
+				}
 			}
 		}
 	}
 	return waitF, nil
 }
 
+func (h *commithook) NotifyWaitFailed() {
+	h.mu.Lock()
+	defer h.mu.Unlock()
+	h.circuitBreakerOpen = true
+}
+
 func (h *commithook) HandleError(ctx context.Context, err error) error {
 	return nil
 }
diff --git a/go/libraries/doltcore/sqle/dsess/transactions.go b/go/libraries/doltcore/sqle/dsess/transactions.go
index 077c6c0fe2..e259ed29eb 100644
--- a/go/libraries/doltcore/sqle/dsess/transactions.go
+++ b/go/libraries/doltcore/sqle/dsess/transactions.go
@@ -276,12 +276,14 @@ func WaitForReplicationController(ctx *sql.Context, rsc doltdb.ReplicationStatus
 		close(done)
 	}()
 
+	waitFailed := false
 	select {
 	case <-time.After(time.Duration(timeoutI) * time.Second):
 		// We timed out before all the waiters were done.
 		// First we make certain to finalize everything.
 		cancel()
 		<-done
+		waitFailed = true
 	case <-done:
 		cancel()
 	}
@@ -290,9 +292,12 @@ func WaitForReplicationController(ctx *sql.Context, rsc doltdb.ReplicationStatus
 	// returned nil errors. Any non-nil entries in rsc.Wait returned an
 	// error. We turn those into warnings here.
 	numFailed := 0
-	for _, f := range rsc.Wait {
+	for i, f := range rsc.Wait {
 		if f != nil {
 			numFailed += 1
+			if waitFailed {
+				rsc.NotifyWaitFailed[i]()
+			}
 		}
 	}
 	ctx.Session.Warn(&sql.Warning{