BerriAI/litellm · error · Exception

Failed to fetch file '{file_path}': {e}

Error message

Failed to fetch file '{file_path}': {e}

What it means

Catch-all raised by GitLabClient._get_file_content_via_raw when fetching a file via the raw endpoint fails with any exception whose response status is not 404/403/401 — e.g. HTTP 500 server errors, timeouts, connection failures, or non-HTTP exceptions raised during the request. 404 is treated as 'file not found' and returns None instead of raising.

Source

Thrown at litellm/integrations/gitlab/gitlab_client.py:150

            ctype: Final = (resp.headers.get("content-type") or "").lower()
            if ctype.startswith("text/") or "charset=" in ctype or ctype.startswith("application/json"):
                return resp.text
            try:
                return resp.content.decode("utf-8")
            except Exception:
                return resp.content.decode("utf-8", errors="replace")

        except Exception as e:
            status: Final = getattr(getattr(e, "response", None), "status_code", None)
            if status == 404:
                return None
            if status == 403:
                raise Exception(
                    f"Access denied to file '{file_path}'. Check your GitLab permissions for project '{self.project}'."
                )
            if status == 401:
                raise Exception("Authentication failed. Check your GitLab token and auth_method.")
            raise Exception(f"Failed to fetch file '{file_path}': {e}")

    def _get_file_content_via_json(self, file_path: str, *, ref: str | None = None) -> str | None:
        """
        Fallback for get_file_content(): use the JSON file API which returns base64 content.
        """
        json_url: Final = self._file_json_url(file_path, ref=ref)
        try:
            resp: Final = self.http_handler.get(json_url, headers=self.headers)
            if resp.status_code == 404:
                return None
            resp.raise_for_status()
            data: Final = resp.json()
            content: Final = data.get("content")
            encoding: Final = data.get("encoding", "")
            if content and encoding == "base64":
                try:
                    return base64.b64decode(content).decode("utf-8")
                except Exception:

View on GitHub (pinned to 6c2dcb801b)

Solutions

1. Inspect the embedded exception text {e} — it includes the underlying httpx error and response details identifying the status.
2. Retry with backoff for 5xx/429 and transient network errors; GitLab rate limits reset over time.
3. Verify base_url (default https://gitlab.com/api/v4) is correct for your instance.
4. If timeouts recur, fetch smaller files or increase the http client timeout on GitLabClient's handler.

import httpx

def probe_gitlab_repo_api(base_url: str, project: str, token: str) -> None:
    import urllib.parse
    resp = httpx.get(
        f"{base_url}/projects/{urllib.parse.quote(project, safe='')}/repository/branches",
        headers={"Private-Token": token},
        timeout=10,
    )
    resp.raise_for_status()  # surfaces 5xx/429/connectivity issues before app traffic

import time

def get_prompt_with_retry(client, path: str, attempts: int = 3):
    for i in range(attempts):
        try:
            return client.get_file_content(path)
        except Exception as e:
            if "Failed to fetch file" in str(e) and i < attempts - 1:
                time.sleep(2**i)
                continue
            raise

When it happens

Trigger: GitLab returning 500/502/503 (incident or overload); request timeouts from very large prompt files on slow networks; DNS/connection failures to base_url; a misconfigured base_url that returns unexpected status codes like 429 (rate limit).

Common situations: gitlab.com incidents or heavy rate limiting on the repository API; self-hosted GitLab behind an overloaded reverse proxy; pulling large prompt directories over slow links; base_url pointing to the wrong host so every request errors generically.

Related errors

• Access denied to file '{file_path}'. Check your GitLab permi
• Failed to fetch file '{file_path}' via JSON endpoint: {e}
• Failed to list files in '{directory_path}': {e}
• Invalid content moderation response: {redacted_text}
• Error from qdrant checking if /collections exist {collection

AI-assisted analysis of BerriAI/litellm@6c2dcb801b (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/275410f9dcab7761. Report an issue: GitHub.