666ghj/MiroFish · error · StarHistoryError

GitHub GraphQL returned an invalid star timestamp

Error message

GitHub GraphQL returned an invalid star timestamp

What it means

An edge's starredAt field was not a string. starredAt is required to place each star on the history timeline, so a non-string value (null, number, object) raises StarHistoryError('GitHub GraphQL returned an invalid star timestamp') before _parse_github_timestamp is attempted (that function only accepts str).

Source

Thrown at scripts/star_history.py:280

        total_count = _strict_non_negative_int(
            stargazers.get("totalCount"), "GraphQL totalCount"
        )
        rate_remaining = _strict_non_negative_int(
            rate_limit.get("remaining"), "GraphQL rate remaining"
        )
        if not isinstance(raw_edges, list):
            raise StarHistoryError("GitHub GraphQL edges were not a list")

        edges: list[StargazerEdge] = []
        for raw_edge in raw_edges:
            if not isinstance(raw_edge, dict):
                raise StarHistoryError("GitHub GraphQL returned an invalid edge")
            cursor = raw_edge.get("cursor")
            starred_at = raw_edge.get("starredAt")
            if not isinstance(cursor, str) or not cursor:
                raise StarHistoryError("GitHub GraphQL returned an invalid edge cursor")
            if not isinstance(starred_at, str):
                raise StarHistoryError("GitHub GraphQL returned an invalid star timestamp")
            edges.append(StargazerEdge(cursor, _parse_github_timestamp(starred_at)))

        has_next_page = page_info.get("hasNextPage")
        end_cursor = page_info.get("endCursor")
        if type(has_next_page) is not bool:
            raise StarHistoryError("GitHub GraphQL returned invalid page information")
        if end_cursor is not None and not isinstance(end_cursor, str):
            raise StarHistoryError("GitHub GraphQL returned an invalid page cursor")
        if has_next_page and not end_cursor:
            raise StarHistoryError("GitHub GraphQL omitted the next page cursor")

        return StargazerPage(
            total_count=total_count,
            edges=tuple(edges),
            has_next_page=has_next_page,
            end_cursor=end_cursor,
            rate_remaining=rate_remaining,
        )

View on GitHub (pinned to b5b53acc57)

Solutions

  1. Ensure the query selects starredAt on every edge
  2. Fix fixtures to use ISO 8601 strings like '2024-01-15T10:30:00Z'
  3. Log the edge to confirm which value type arrived

Example fix

// before
edges { cursor }

// after
edges { cursor starredAt }
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

if not all(isinstance(e.get("starredAt"), str) for e in raw_edges if isinstance(e, dict)):
    raise StarHistoryError("edges missing starredAt; query must select starredAt")

Type guard

def edge_has_starred_at(edge: object) -> TypeGuard[dict]:
    return isinstance(edge, dict) and isinstance(edge.get("starredAt"), str)

Try / catch

try:
    page = _parse_graphql_page(payload)
except StarHistoryError as exc:
    if "invalid star timestamp" in str(exc) and "type" not in str(exc):
        raise StarHistoryError("cannot place stars on timeline without starredAt") from exc
    raise

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Edge with starredAt: null (field not selected in the query, or edge for an invisible user), or a fixture where starredAt was replaced by an epoch number.

Common situations: Query edited to drop the starredAt selection; hand-written fixtures; GitHub schema change renaming the field (e.g. to starred_at).

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of 666ghj/MiroFish@b5b53acc57 (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/535388e452fc0000. Report an issue: GitHub.