From 52db7c220c243b2b7dae2cc1c7a776c67a0998f1 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Robert M1 <50460704+githubrobbi@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Sun, 19 Jul 2026 18:24:08 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] fix(ci): don't let a transient GitHub API error fail the
 commitlint gate

gh api's stdout on a 5xx error is its JSON error body, but the command
still exits non-zero; the existing `|| true` swallowed the exit code
while EXISTING_ID still captured that JSON text as if it were a real
comment id. The subsequent DELETE/PATCH call then crashed on the
garbage URL, failing this *required* gate for a reason unrelated to
title conformance (release PR #564 hit this: title conformed, the
stale-comment-cleanup lookup 503'd, and the whole job died).

Validate EXISTING_ID is purely numeric before trusting it; anything
else (including a JSON error blob) is treated as "no existing comment"
so the conformance result stands on its own.
---
 .github/workflows/commitlint.yml | 13 +++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 13 insertions(+)

diff --git a/.github/workflows/commitlint.yml b/.github/workflows/commitlint.yml
index 6af627355..7b5dd253a 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/commitlint.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/commitlint.yml
@@ -196,11 +196,24 @@ jobs:
           # comments endpoint (PR comments live there) and jq-filter
           # by marker presence.  `head -1` defends against the
           # (impossible-but-cheap-to-guard) double-managed-comment case.
+          #
+          # A transient GitHub API error (e.g. a 503) makes `gh api`
+          # print its JSON error body to stdout while still exiting
+          # non-zero; the `|| true` swallows the exit code but not
+          # that body, so EXISTING_ID could otherwise become garbage
+          # text instead of a real comment id — which then crashes the
+          # DELETE/PATCH call below and fails this *required* gate for
+          # a reason unrelated to title conformance. Validate the
+          # result is purely numeric (a real id always is) and treat
+          # anything else as "no existing comment found".
           EXISTING_ID=$(
             gh api --paginate "repos/${GITHUB_REPOSITORY}/issues/${PR_NUMBER}/comments" \
               --jq ".[] | select(.body | contains(\"${COMMENT_MARKER}\")) | .id" \
               | head -1 || true
           )
+          if ! [[ "${EXISTING_ID}" =~ ^[0-9]+$ ]]; then
+            EXISTING_ID=""
+          fi
 
           if echo "$TITLE" | grep -qE "$PATTERN"; then
             # ── Conforming title ───────────────────────────────────