diff --git a/CLAUDE.md b/CLAUDE.md
index b1796926..3fb1b148 100644
--- a/CLAUDE.md
+++ b/CLAUDE.md
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ This is a Maven monorepo containing the PDS (Planetary Data System) Registry Loa
 **Key characteristics:**
 - Maven multi-module Java project (modules: `common`, `harvest`, `manager`)
 - Parent version: 1.3.0-SNAPSHOT
-- Depends on `registry-common` library for shared OpenSearch/Elasticsearch abstractions
+- **Hard fork / merge of three upstream repos:** The source code in this monorepo was merged from [`registry-common`](https://github.com/NASA-PDS/registry-common), [`harvest`](https://github.com/NASA-PDS/harvest), and [`registry-manager`](https://github.com/NASA-PDS/registry-manager). There is **no active dependency on those upstream repos** — they are separate projects. Bug fixes or changes made in those upstream repos must be **manually ported** into this codebase. Always check upstream PRs/issues when triaging bugs here.
 
 ## Modules
 
diff --git a/common/src/main/java/gov/nasa/pds/registry/common/connection/aws/RestClientWrapper.java b/common/src/main/java/gov/nasa/pds/registry/common/connection/aws/RestClientWrapper.java
index 127aa8a3..3aad50df 100644
--- a/common/src/main/java/gov/nasa/pds/registry/common/connection/aws/RestClientWrapper.java
+++ b/common/src/main/java/gov/nasa/pds/registry/common/connection/aws/RestClientWrapper.java
@@ -78,6 +78,24 @@ public R retry (T arg) throws IOException, ResponseException {
             throw ose;
           }
         }
+        catch (IOException ioe) {
+          retries++;
+          if (retries < retry_limit) {
+            log.warn("Transient I/O error communicating with OpenSearch ({}). Rebuilding connection and retrying ({}/{})...",
+                ioe, retries, retry_limit);
+            try { conFact.reconnect(); }
+            catch (InterruptedException ie) { throw new RuntimeException("How did this happen??", ie); }
+            client = buildClient();
+            try {
+              Thread.sleep(Math.min(retries, 30) * 1000L);
+            } catch (InterruptedException ie) {
+              Thread.currentThread().interrupt();
+            }
+          } else {
+            log.error("Tried {} times to recover from I/O errors with OpenSearch but cannot.", retry_limit, ioe);
+            throw ioe;
+          }
+        }
       }
     }
   }