fix: retry GitHub REST API calls when HTML is returned instead of JSON by Copilot · Pull Request #22800 · github/gh-aw

Copilot · 2026-03-25T00:51:02Z

GitHub's REST API occasionally crashes and returns an HTML 500 "Unicorn!" page instead of JSON. Previously this caused update_pull_request (and other update handlers) to fail permanently with no retry.

Changes

error_recovery.cjs — isTransientError now detects HTML responses by checking if the error message starts with <!DOCTYPE html. GitHub's Unicorn page is a transient 500, not a permanent failure.
update_handler_factory.cjs — wraps executeUpdate with withRetry (1 retry, 2s delay) so all update handlers (update_pull_request, update_issue, update_discussion) automatically retry on transient errors including HTML responses.

// Before: no retry
const updatedItem = await executeUpdate(githubClient, effectiveContext, itemNumber, updateData);

// After: retries once on transient errors (HTML responses, network errors, rate limits)
const updatedItem = await withRetry(
  () => executeUpdate(githubClient, effectiveContext, itemNumber, updateData),
  { maxRetries: 1, initialDelayMs: 2000, shouldRetry: isTransientError },
  `update ${itemTypeName} #${itemNumber}`,
);

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Pull request overview

Adds resilience to GitHub REST update handlers by detecting GitHub’s occasional HTML “Unicorn” error pages as transient failures and retrying updates once instead of failing permanently.

Changes:

Extend transient-error detection to treat HTML <!doctype html... responses as retryable.
Wrap all update-handler executeUpdate calls with withRetry to retry once on transient failures.
Adjust an existing unit test expectation to account for enhanced error text after retries.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 4 out of 4 changed files in this pull request and generated 1 comment.

File	Description
actions/setup/js/error_recovery.cjs	Treats HTML-doctype error messages as transient and normalizes casing/whitespace handling.
actions/setup/js/error_recovery.test.cjs	Adds tests ensuring HTML “Unicorn” responses are classified as transient.
actions/setup/js/update_handler_factory.cjs	Wraps update execution in `withRetry` to add a single automatic retry for transient errors.
actions/setup/js/update_handler_factory.test.cjs	Loosens assertion on error text to allow enhanced error messages from retry wrapper.

Comments suppressed due to low confidence (2)

actions/setup/js/update_handler_factory.cjs:260

Retrying update operations can duplicate side effects for non-idempotent body operations (notably append/prepend in updateBody), if the first request actually succeeds but the client errors (timeouts, connection reset, etc.). Since this factory now retries on broad transient patterns, consider narrowing shouldRetry for update handlers (or making append/prepend updates idempotent, e.g. via replace-island markers) to avoid double-appending content.

      // Retry on transient errors (e.g. GitHub API returning HTML instead of JSON on 500 crashes).
      try {
        const updatedItem = await withRetry(() => executeUpdate(githubClient, effectiveContext, itemNumber, updateData), { maxRetries: 1, initialDelayMs: 2000, shouldRetry: isTransientError }, `update ${itemTypeName} #${itemNumber}`);
        core.info(`Successfully updated ${itemTypeName} #${itemNumber}: ${updatedItem.html_url || updatedItem.url}`);

actions/setup/js/update_handler_factory.cjs:259

The retry delay here likely isn't the intended 2s. withRetry multiplies delay after the first failure before sleeping, so with { initialDelayMs: 2000 } and default backoffMultiplier: 2, the first retry will wait ~4000ms. If you want the first retry to be ~2000ms, consider setting initialDelayMs to 1000 (keeping the default multiplier) or explicitly setting backoffMultiplier: 1 for this call site.

        const updatedItem = await withRetry(() => executeUpdate(githubClient, effectiveContext, itemNumber, updateData), { maxRetries: 1, initialDelayMs: 2000, shouldRetry: isTransientError }, `update ${itemTypeName} #${itemNumber}`);

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Copilot · 2026-03-25T01:27:22Z

actions/setup/js/update_handler_factory.cjs

+      // Retry on transient errors (e.g. GitHub API returning HTML instead of JSON on 500 crashes).
      try {
-        const updatedItem = await executeUpdate(githubClient, effectiveContext, itemNumber, updateData);
+        const updatedItem = await withRetry(() => executeUpdate(githubClient, effectiveContext, itemNumber, updateData), { maxRetries: 1, initialDelayMs: 2000, shouldRetry: isTransientError }, `update ${itemTypeName} #${itemNumber}`);
        core.info(`Successfully updated ${itemTypeName} #${itemNumber}: ${updatedItem.html_url || updatedItem.url}`);


This change introduces new behavior (retrying executeUpdate on transient errors), but update_handler_factory.test.cjs doesn't currently assert that retries happen (e.g., executeUpdate called twice when the first attempt throws a transient error). Adding a test for the retry path would help prevent regressions and confirm the correct retry config (attempt count + delay/backoff).

This issue also appears in the following locations of the same file:

line 257

line 259

Initial plan

62dc9f8

Copilot AI assigned Copilot and pelikhan Mar 25, 2026

Copilot started work on behalf of pelikhan March 25, 2026 00:51 View session

github-actions bot mentioned this pull request Mar 25, 2026

Smoke Test: Claude - 23519518981 #22803

Closed

Copilot AI and others added 2 commits March 25, 2026 01:02

fix: retry GitHub REST API calls when HTML is returned instead of JSON

1a748b6

Co-authored-by: pelikhan <4175913+pelikhan@users.noreply.github.com> Agent-Logs-Url: https://github.com/github/gh-aw/sessions/e99d386d-c5e4-4c8d-a8ed-98bba745705b

refactor: optimize isTransientError to avoid redundant string processing

7426e68

Co-authored-by: pelikhan <4175913+pelikhan@users.noreply.github.com> Agent-Logs-Url: https://github.com/github/gh-aw/sessions/e99d386d-c5e4-4c8d-a8ed-98bba745705b

Copilot AI changed the title ~~[WIP] Add retry logic for GitHub REST API crash~~ fix: retry GitHub REST API calls when HTML is returned instead of JSON Mar 25, 2026

Copilot AI requested a review from pelikhan March 25, 2026 01:10

Copilot finished work on behalf of pelikhan March 25, 2026 01:10

pelikhan approved these changes Mar 25, 2026

View reviewed changes

pelikhan marked this pull request as ready for review March 25, 2026 01:23

Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings March 25, 2026 01:23

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of pelikhan March 25, 2026 01:24 View session

Copilot AI reviewed Mar 25, 2026

View reviewed changes

pelikhan merged commit 45a339e into main Mar 25, 2026
103 checks passed

pelikhan deleted the copilot/handle-api-crash-retry branch March 25, 2026 01:32

This was referenced Mar 25, 2026

Smoke Test: Codex - 23520005095 #22816

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fix: retry GitHub REST API calls when HTML is returned instead of JSON#22800

fix: retry GitHub REST API calls when HTML is returned instead of JSON#22800
pelikhan merged 3 commits intomainfrom
copilot/handle-api-crash-retry

Copilot AI commented Mar 25, 2026 •

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Copilot AI commented Mar 25, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

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Copilot AI commented Mar 25, 2026 •

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