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feat(core): classify retryable transport/provider failures vs deterministic request errors#3798

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B-A-M-N:feat/retry-error-classification
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feat(core): classify retryable transport/provider failures vs deterministic request errors#3798
B-A-M-N wants to merge 6 commits into
QwenLM:mainfrom
B-A-M-N:feat/retry-error-classification

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@B-A-M-N

@B-A-M-N B-A-M-N commented May 2, 2026

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Summary

Add classifyError() to categorize errors without retrying deterministic request errors (400, 401, 403, 404, 422). Only retry transport/provider failures: 429, 408, 409 (transient), 500-599, and network errors.

Behavior

  • Deterministic errors (never retry): 400, 401, 403, 404, 422
  • Retryable: 429, 408, 409 (transient), 500-599, network errors (ECONNRESET, ETIMEDOUT, etc.)
  • Exports: classifyError(), isRetryableNetworkError()

Scope

Does NOT change retry behavior or add "big reliability system." Only classifies errors.

Validation

  • npm run build passes
  • npx vitest run src/utils/retry.test.ts — 91 tests pass (16 new)
  • Paid API testing not performed due to account limitations

Risk

Low. Isolated to packages/core/src/utils/retry.ts.

B-A-M-N added 2 commits May 2, 2026 17:08
…ailures

Add classifyError() to categorize errors without retrying deterministic
request errors (400, 401, 403, 404, 422). Only retry transport/
provider failures: 429, 408, 409 (transient), 500-599, and network
errors (ECONNRESET, ETIMEDOUT, socket closed, etc.).

Also export isRetryableNetworkError() for use in retry logic.
…lict

The message.includes('409') fallback made ALL 409 errors appear
transient, preventing deterministic conflict classification. Only actual
transient indicators (lock/contention/conflict) should trigger it.

@wenshao wenshao left a comment

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[Critical] The custom shouldRetryOnError closure in geminiChat.ts was not updated, meaning the streaming path cannot benefit from the new retry classifications added in this PR (408, transient 409, network errors). Streaming requests encountering these errors will fail immediately, while non-streaming requests will retry.

// In geminiChat.ts's shouldRetryOnError closure, update to:
// 1. status=408 → retry
// 2. status=409 → call isTransientConflict(error) to decide
// 3. isRetryableNetworkError(error) → retry
// Or simply remove the custom closure and let defaultShouldRetry handle it

[Suggestion] The new 408/409/network-error paths in defaultShouldRetry lack integration tests through retryWithBackoff — they are only covered by classifyError/isRetryableNetworkError unit tests.

[Suggestion] classifyError and defaultShouldRetry have duplicated code, both independently implementing HTTP status code classification logic. Consider having defaultShouldRetry delegate to classifyError.

[Suggestion] Persistent mode's isTransientCapacityError was not updated and does not recognize 408 or network errors, meaning these errors cannot be retried indefinitely in CI environments.

[Suggestion] classifyError is exported but has no callers in production code, adding an unused public API.

Comment thread packages/core/src/utils/retry.test.ts Outdated
});

it('should classify 409 without transient message as non-retryable', () => {
const error = { status: 409, message: 'Version conflict' };

@wenshao wenshao May 3, 2026

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[Suggestion] This test uses a plain object { status: 409, message: 'Version conflict' } instead of an Error instance. getErrorMessage returns "[object Object]" for plain objects, so isTransientConflict never sees the actual message — the test passes purely by coincidence. With a real Error instance, the "conflict" substring in "Version conflict" would match, causing the test to fail and exposing that the 'conflict' keyword in isTransientConflict is overly broad.

Suggested change
const error = { status: 409, message: 'Version conflict' };
const error: HttpError = Object.assign(new Error('Duplicate resource'), { status: 409 });
const result = classifyError(error);
expect(result.retryable).toBe(false);
expect(result.reason).toContain('Deterministic conflict');

- geminiChat.ts: delegate shouldRetryOnError to classifyError for 408/409/network errors
- retry.ts: deduplicate defaultShouldRetry → classifyError (single source of truth)
- retry.ts: update isTransientCapacityError for persistent mode (408 + network errors)
- retry.test.ts: add 15 integration tests for retryWithBackoff (408/409/network paths)
- retry.test.ts: add 6 tests for updated isTransientCapacityError
- geminiChat.test.ts: add 4 tests (408 retry, 409 transient retry, 409 deterministic no-retry, network retry)

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
@B-A-M-N

B-A-M-N commented May 3, 2026

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All review comments have been addressed in the latest push (ddb74f0):

1. [Critical] geminiChat.ts shouldRetryOnError not updated — Fixed. The custom `shouldRetryOnError` closure now delegates to `classifyError(error).retryable` for all non-400 status codes, so the streaming path benefits from the same 408/transient-409/network-error classification as the non-streaming path. Schema depth and invalid argument errors are still fast-failed before delegation.

2. [Suggestion] defaultShouldRetry / classifyError code duplication — Fixed. `defaultShouldRetry` now delegates to `classifyError`, eliminating the duplicated HTTP status code classification logic. Single source of truth.

3. [Suggestion] isTransientCapacityError not updated for persistent mode — Fixed. `isTransientCapacityError` now recognizes 408 (Request Timeout) and retryable network transport errors (ECONNRESET, ETIMEDOUT, etc.) in addition to 429/529, so persistent mode can retry these transient failures.

4. [Suggestion] classifyError exported but unused in production — Resolved. `classifyError` is now called by both `defaultShouldRetry` (core retry path) and `geminiChat.ts` (streaming retry path).

5. [Suggestion] Integration tests for new error paths — Added 21 new tests:

  • 15 integration tests in `retry.test.ts` exercising 408/409/network-error paths through `retryWithBackoff` (retry success, retry exhaustion, non-retryable 409, non-retryable 401/404)
  • 6 tests for updated `isTransientCapacityError` (408, ECONNRESET, ETIMEDOUT, socket-closed, non-retryable code)
  • 4 tests in `geminiChat.test.ts` for the streaming retry path (408 retry, transient 409 retry, deterministic 409 no-retry, ECONNRESET retry)

Total: 106 tests passing (was 91).

B-A-M-N and others added 2 commits May 3, 2026 14:59
Remove `await` from `expect(promise).rejects.toThrow()` calls that are
followed by `vi.runAllTimersAsync()`. In vitest 3.2.4, awaiting the
assertion promise before advancing fake timers creates a deadlock: the
inner promise can't reject until timers advance, but timers can't advance
while the microtask queue is blocked by the await.

Also add explicit `initialDelayMs: 10` to tests using default options
(7 attempts × 1500ms default = 76s of fake time, triggering the 5s
test timeout), and reduce abort-signal test delay from 10s to 100ms.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Remove await from expect(promise).rejects.toThrow() calls that are
followed by vi.runAllTimersAsync(). In vitest 3.2.4, awaiting the
assertion promise before advancing fake timers creates a deadlock:
the inner promise can't reject until timers advance, but timers
can't advance while the microtask queue is blocked.

Also add explicit initialDelayMs: 10 to tests using default options
(7 attempts x 1500ms default = 76s of fake time, triggering the 5s
test timeout), and reduce abort-signal test delay from 10s to 100ms.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

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Suggestion: isTransientConflict (retry.ts:398-403) uses message.includes('conflict') to determine if a 409 error is transient. Since "Conflict" is the HTTP 409 reason phrase, virtually all standards-compliant 409 responses will contain this word, making the transient/deterministic distinction ineffective. Consider removing 'conflict' and keeping only 'lock' and 'contention' as stronger transient signals. Additionally, the test at retry.test.ts:1224 uses a plain object {status: 409, message: 'Version conflict'} instead of new Error('Version conflict'), masking this issue — getErrorMessage() returns '[object Object]' for plain objects, so the test passes for the wrong reason.

⚠ CI lint check is currently failing — verify it is unrelated to these changes.

— deepseek-v4-pro via Qwen Code /review

* retryable network transport errors (ECONNRESET, ETIMEDOUT, etc.).
* HTTP 500 is excluded because it may indicate a permanent server bug.
*/
export function isTransientCapacityError(error: unknown): boolean {

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[Suggestion] isTransientCapacityError now covers 408 and retryable network errors (ECONNRESET, ETIMEDOUT, etc.) in addition to 429/529. This function gates persistent retry mode — when QWEN_CODE_UNATTENDED_RETRY=true, qualifying errors are retried indefinitely for up to 6 hours. However, 408 can be a permanent condition (e.g. proxy timeout shorter than API latency), and network codes like ENOTFOUND, EHOSTUNREACH, ECONNREFUSED (in RETRYABLE_NETWORK_CODES) can indicate permanent config errors (wrong endpoint, firewall block). In CI/unattended mode, a simple endpoint typo would hang the process for hours instead of failing fast.

Consider scoping isTransientCapacityError back to 429/529 only (consistent with its name), or giving network/timeout errors a separate, shorter persistent cap.

Suggested change
export function isTransientCapacityError(error: unknown): boolean {
if (status === 429 || status === 529) {
return true;
}
// 408 and network errors are retryable in standard mode
// but should NOT trigger indefinite persistent retries
return false;

— deepseek-v4-pro via Qwen Code /review


return false;
// Delegate to classifyError for all other cases (408, 409, 429, 5xx, network)
return classifyError(error).retryable;

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[Suggestion] The shouldRetryOnError callback now delegates entirely to classifyError(error).retryable for non-400 errors, replacing the previous explicit allowlist (status === 429, 5xx) with a return false fallback. While functionally equivalent today, this loses defense-in-depth: any future addition of a retryable category to classifyError (e.g. a new status code or message pattern) will automatically and silently apply to Gemini Chat streaming requests, bypassing Gemini Chat's context-specific judgment (which previously required explicit opt-in for each error type).

Consider adding an allowlist assertion after classifyError, or documenting which error categories are explicitly accepted for Gemini streaming retries.

— deepseek-v4-pro via Qwen Code /review

- Remove 'conflict' from isTransientConflict keywords (too broad: matches
  standard HTTP 409 reason phrase "Conflict"). Keep only 'lock' and 'contention'.
- Fix 409 test to use proper Error instance instead of plain object
  (getErrorMessage returns "[object Object]" for plain objects, masking the bug).
- Scope isTransientCapacityError to 429/529 only. 408 and network errors are
  no longer persistent-retryable since they can indicate permanent config issues
  (wrong endpoint, firewall) that would hang unattended jobs for hours.
- Update isTransientCapacityError tests to match new scope.
- Document accepted retryable categories in geminiChat.ts shouldRetryOnError.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
// eslint-disable-next-line vitest/valid-expect
const assertionPromise = expect(promise).rejects.toThrow(

const assertionPromise = await expect(promise).rejects.toThrow(

@wenshao wenshao May 4, 2026

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[Critical] Multiple expect(promise).rejects.toThrow(...) calls were changed to await expect(promise).rejects.toThrow(...), causing a deadlock under fake timers — the promise will not settle until vi.runAllTimersAsync() is called.

Affected locations (10+ in total):

  • Line 103: should throw an error if all attempts fail
  • Line 126: should default to 7 maxAttempts if no options are provided
  • Line 146: should default to 7 maxAttempts if options.maxAttempts is undefined
  • Line 197: should use default shouldRetry if not provided, retrying on 429
  • Lines 266/281: should handle jitter correctly
  • Lines 347/370/446: Qwen OAuth retry tests
  • Line 661: should NOT retry indefinitely for 500 errors in persistent mode
  • Line 754: should abort persistent retry when signal is aborted
  • Lines 776/823: persistent mode fast-fail tests
  • Line 1337: should exhaust retries on persistent 408 (new)
  • Lines 1383/1478: should exhaust retries on persistent network error (new)

Root cause: When an error is retryable, retryWithBackoff internally calls delay(), creating an unfired setTimeout. await expect(...).rejects.toThrow(...) blocks until the promise rejects, but the rejection requires vi.runAllTimersAsync() to have been called first.

Suggested change
const assertionPromise = await expect(promise).rejects.toThrow(
// Wrong:
const assertionPromise = await expect(promise).rejects.toThrow(...);
// Correct:
// eslint-disable-next-line vitest/valid-expect
const assertionPromise = expect(promise).rejects.toThrow(...);
await vi.runAllTimersAsync();
await assertionPromise;

Revert all 10+ occurrences to the correct pattern without await, and restore the // eslint-disable-next-line vitest/valid-expect comments.

}

const status = getErrorStatus(error);
if (status === 400) return false;

@wenshao wenshao May 4, 2026

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[Suggestion] The explicit if (status === 400) return false; check before delegating to classifyError is redundant — classifyError already classifies 400 as non-retryable. It creates an asymmetry: 400 is double-checked while 401/403/404/422 are only handled by classifyError. If a maintainer sees the explicit 400 check and removes the 400 handling from classifyError, callers of defaultShouldRetry would lose 400 protection.

Consider removing this explicit check and fully delegating to classifyError. Alternatively, move the message checks (isSchemaDepthError/isInvalidArgumentError) into classifyError as well, making the callback a clean delegation.

Suggested change
if (status === 400) return false;
// Delegate to classifyError for all cases.
return classifyError(error).retryable;

const RETRYABLE_NETWORK_CODES = new Set([
'ECONNRESET',
'ETIMEDOUT',
'ESOCKETTIMEDOUT',

@wenshao wenshao May 4, 2026

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[Suggestion] ENOTFOUND (DNS resolution failure) is included in RETRYABLE_NETWORK_CODES, but DNS failures are typically permanent (hostname typo, DNS misconfiguration) rather than transient. This causes users to wait ~2 minutes before seeing a failure when there's a configuration error. ECONNREFUSED is also debatable — if the service isn't running at all, retrying is purely wasted time.

Consider removing ENOTFOUND from retryable codes, or add a comment explaining why DNS failures should be retried.

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