Get response status even on "error"

[joshft91]

Hello! 👋 I wasn't sure the best phrase to word the question, but hopefully this makes sense.

I'm attempting to write a quick little function using github-script to createOrUpdateRepoVariable because the GitHub API only supports creating or patching repository variables and in my use-case, I won't know if that variable is already created or not yet.

Unfortunately, it doesn't look like github.rest.actions.getRepoVariable is implemented yet (#345) so I'm attempting to use github.request('GET /...') (shown in the example below) as a workaround.

I'd like to check for the existence of a repository variable prior to creating/updating that variable. I would expect a 404 response. However, when running the examples below I get a Error: Unhandled error: HttpError: Not Found message and the step dies - even though I want the 404 result value. Is there a way to get that value without the step erroring out? I tried continue-on-error but that doesn't work either since it's the github-script that's dying. Hopefully this is a simple documentation thing I missed. Thank you!

Step calling the script

- uses: actions/github-script@v6
        with:
          github-token: ${{ secrets.myPAT }}            
          script: |
            const script = require('./.github/scripts/createOrUpdateRepoVariable.js')
            await script({ github, context })

The script being called

module.exports = async ({ context, github, name, value }) => {
  const { status } = await github.request('GET /repos/{owner}/{repo}/actions/variables/{name}', {
    owner: context.repo.owner,
    repo: context.repo.repo,
    name: 'DOES_NOT_EXIST'
  })
  
  console.log(status)
}

---

The output logs when the step fails.

RequestError [HttpError]: Not Found
Error: Unhandled error: HttpError: Not Found
    at /home/runner/work/_actions/actions/github-script/v6/dist/index.js:6842:21
    at processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:96:5)
    at async module.exports (my stuff)
    at async eval (eval at callAsyncFunction (/home/runner/work/_actions/actions/github-script/v6/dist/index.js:15143:16), <anonymous>:4:1)
    at async main (/home/runner/work/_actions/actions/github-script/v6/dist/index.js:15236:20) {
  status: 404,
  response: {
    url: 'my-repo-url',
    status: 404,
    headers: {
      'a-bunch-of-headers'
    },
    data: {
      message: 'Not Found',
      documentation_url: 'https://docs.github.com/rest/actions/variables#get-a-repository-variable'
    }
  },
  request: {
    method: 'GET',
    url: 'my-url',
    headers: {
      accept: 'application/vnd.github.v3+json',
      'user-agent': 'actions/github-script octokit-core.js/3.6.0 Node.js/16.16.0 (linux; x64)',
      authorization: 'token [REDACTED]'
    },
    request: { agent: [Agent], hook: [Function: bound bound register] }
  }
}

[joshft91]

I was messing around with this more and found this as a potential workaround/solution by catching thrown error and returning the response object. Is there a better/cleaner way?

const response = await github.request('GET /repos/{owner}/{repo}/actions/variables/{name}', {
    owner: context.repo.owner,
    repo: context.repo.repo,
    name
  }).catch(response => response)

[joshmgross]

👋 Hey @joshft91,

I think your solution is on the right track, you want to catch any errors being thrown by Octokit for errors.

Here's another example in case you wanted to add some logic in the case of errors:

module.exports = async ({ context, github, name, value }) => {
  let status;
  try {
    const { respStatus } = await github.request('GET /repos/{owner}/{repo}/actions/variables/{name}', {
      owner: context.repo.owner,
      repo: context.repo.repo,
      name: 'DOES_NOT_EXIST'
    })
    status = respStatus
  } catch (e) {
    status = e.status
  }

  console.log(status)
}

[joshft91]

Thanks for the response! Glad to know I'm on the right track. Looking at your example, could .then(...) be used to get the same status as yours? I think it would, thoughI haven't tested it. Either way, thanks for the examples. I think I am good to go.

module.exports = async ({ context, github, name, value }) => {
    const status = await github.request('GET /repos/{owner}/{repo}/actions/variables/{name}', {
      owner: context.repo.owner,
      repo: context.repo.repo,
      name: 'DOES_NOT_EXIST'
    }).then(response => response.status)
      .catch(response => response.status)

  console.log(status)
}