Fix JQ query failures in GitHub workflow caused by double command execution bug

[Copilot]

Problem

The pull-project-tasks.yml workflow was failing with "Invalid JSON response from GitHub API" errors despite receiving valid JSON responses from the GitHub GraphQL API. The error manifested as:

Error: Invalid JSON response from GitHub API:
Checking GraphQL API rate limit...
GraphQL API points remaining: 5000
Attempt 1 of 5: gh api graphql -f query=query($org: String!) { ... }
{"data":{"organization":{"projectsV2":{"nodes":[...]}}}}Command succeeded on attempt 1.
Error: Process completed with exit code 1.

Root Cause

Analysis revealed two critical bugs in the retry_with_backoff function used by all API calls:

1. Double Command Execution: Failed commands were executed twice - once to test success/failure, then again to capture error output
2. JSON Response Contamination: Success messages were concatenated with API responses, creating malformed JSON

Before:

if "$@"; then
  echo "Command succeeded on attempt $attempt."
  return 0
else
  local exit_code=$?
  response=$("$@" 2>&1)  # ❌ Command executed AGAIN
  echo "Command response: $response"

This resulted in captured responses like:

{"data":{"organization":{"projectsV2":{"nodes":[...]}}}}Command succeeded on attempt 1.

Solution

Fixed retry_with_backoff function (4 instances):

response=$("$@" 2>&1)      # ✅ Execute ONCE
exit_code=$?
if [ $exit_code -eq 0 ]; then
  echo "Command succeeded on attempt $attempt." >&2  # ✅ To stderr
  echo "$response"         # ✅ Clean JSON to stdout
  return 0

Key improvements:

• Commands execute only once, eliminating double API calls
• Success messages redirected to stderr to avoid JSON contamination
• Clean response output for proper JSON parsing
• Maintained proper error handling and retry logic

Verification

All JQ queries tested and verified against actual GitHub API v4 responses:

• ✅ REST API rate limits: .rate.remaining / .rate.reset
• ✅ GraphQL rate limits: .data.rateLimit.remaining / .data.rateLimit.resetAt
• ✅ Project queries: .data.organization.projectsV2.nodes[]
• ✅ Issue queries: .data.repository.issue.id
• ✅ Error handling: .errors field detection

Expected Behavior

• Valid project names: Workflow continues successfully with clean JSON parsing
• Invalid project names: Clear error message listing available projects (expected behavior)
• API errors: Proper retry logic with exponential backoff
• Rate limiting: Accurate detection and handling

The workflow now handles all scenarios correctly, including cases where requested project names don't exist.

Fixes #19.

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