diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index d03c1533150..d88855de1c5 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@
 - [#6065](https://github.com/influxdata/influxdb/pull/6065):  Wait for a process termination on influxdb restart @simnv
 - [#5252](https://github.com/influxdata/influxdb/issues/5252): Release tarballs contain specific attributes on '.'
 - [#5554](https://github.com/influxdata/influxdb/issues/5554): Can't run in alpine linux
+- [#6094](https://github.com/influxdata/influxdb/issues/6094): Ensure CREATE RETENTION POLICY and CREATE CONTINUOUS QUERY are idempotent in the correct way.
 
 ## v0.11.0 [2016-03-22]
 
diff --git a/services/meta/client_test.go b/services/meta/client_test.go
index 4b1f5d20bad..bae2fb85c0c 100644
--- a/services/meta/client_test.go
+++ b/services/meta/client_test.go
@@ -550,9 +550,18 @@ func TestMetaClient_ContinuousQueries(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
 
-	// Recreate an existing CQ
-	if err := c.CreateContinuousQuery("db0", "cq0", `SELECT max(value) INTO foo_max FROM foo GROUP BY time(10m)`); err == nil || err.Error() != `continuous query already exists` {
-		t.Fatalf("unexpected error: %s", err)
+	// Recreating an existing CQ with the exact same query should not
+	// return an error.
+	if err := c.CreateContinuousQuery("db0", "cq0", `SELECT count(value) INTO foo_count FROM foo GROUP BY time(10m)`); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("got error %q, but didn't expect one", err)
+	}
+
+	// Recreating an existing CQ with a different query should return
+	// an error.
+	if err := c.CreateContinuousQuery("db0", "cq0", `SELECT min(value) INTO foo_max FROM foo GROUP BY time(20m)`); err == nil {
+		t.Fatal("didn't get and error, but expected one")
+	} else if got, exp := err, meta.ErrContinuousQueryExists; got.Error() != exp.Error() {
+		t.Fatalf("got %v, expected %v", got, exp)
 	}
 
 	// Create a few more CQ's
diff --git a/services/meta/data.go b/services/meta/data.go
index eb5ee91f0b3..4505e5ebf4d 100644
--- a/services/meta/data.go
+++ b/services/meta/data.go
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ import (
 	"errors"
 	"fmt"
 	"sort"
+	"strings"
 	"sync"
 	"time"
 
@@ -417,8 +418,14 @@ func (data *Data) CreateContinuousQuery(database, name, query string) error {
 	}
 
 	// Ensure the name doesn't already exist.
-	for i := range di.ContinuousQueries {
-		if di.ContinuousQueries[i].Name == name {
+	for _, cq := range di.ContinuousQueries {
+		if cq.Name == name {
+			// If the query string is the same, we'll silently return,
+			// otherwise we'll assume the user might be trying to
+			// overwrite an existing CQ with a different query.
+			if strings.ToLower(cq.Query) == strings.ToLower(query) {
+				return nil
+			}
 			return ErrContinuousQueryExists
 		}
 	}