Edge Cases

Common edge case handling patterns shared across all GHS skills. Centralizing these avoids drift between skills that face the same situations.

Rate Limiting

GitHub's API allows 5,000 requests/hour for authenticated users. When rate-limited:

1. The gh CLI returns a 403 with "rate limit exceeded"
2. Report the error to the user with the reset time
3. Do not retry in a loop --- this wastes tokens and won't resolve until the window resets
4. Suggest the user wait and re-run the skill

Content Filter Workaround

Some files (notably Code of Conduct) trigger API content filters when generated inline.

Detection: Agent fails with "Output blocked by content filtering policy"

Handling: Download the canonical version from an official URL instead of generating inline, then customize placeholders:

curl -sL "https://www.contributor-covenant.org/version/2/1/code_of_conduct/code_of_conduct.md" \
  -o CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md
sed -i '' 's/\[INSERT CONTACT METHOD\]/via GitHub issues/' CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md

The orchestrator detects content filter failures and retries with the download-based approach automatically.

Permission Errors (403)

Context	Meaning	Action
Branch protection check	Requires admin access	Report as WARN
Security alerts	May require security admin role	Report as WARN
Push to repo	User lacks write access	Report as FAILED
Label creation	May require maintainer role	Skip label, continue
Org-level settings	Managed at org level	Note the possibility

gh CLI Error Handling

Append 2>&1 || true to gh commands that may return non-zero for expected conditions. A 404 on a resource check means "doesn't exist yet" (useful information), not a runtime error.

Bounded Agent Retries

Retry Count	Action
0 (first failure)	Re-run with error context appended
1 (second failure)	Re-run with error + stricter constraints
2+ (third failure)	Mark as NEEDS_HUMAN, preserve worktree

Two retries catches transient issues; persistent failures need human judgment.

Special Repository Situations

Situation	Handling
Private repos	All gh checks work if the user has access. Note visibility in reports.
Org-level settings	Branch protection and security may be org-managed. Report 403s as WARN.
Forks	Inherit settings from upstream. Note in reports; some checks may not apply.
Empty/new repos	Many checks naturally fail. Add a note to focus on Tier 1 first.
Archived repos	Warn that changes cannot be pushed. Scanning still works for information.
Repos with many issues	Cap terminal display at 20 issues. Note overflow count.
Long issue bodies	Truncate to 500 chars with "..." and a link to the full issue.