apify/crawlee · warning

${colors.yellow(`[${label}]`)}: Attempt ${attempt + 1} of ${

Error message

${colors.yellow(`[${label}]`)}: Attempt ${attempt + 1} of ${retries} failed, and will be retried

What it means

This is a retry warning emitted by the generic `withRetries` wrapper in CreateProjectCommand. When the wrapped async function (e.g. `downloadTemplateFilesToDisk` used by the `create`/template download path) throws, the wrapper catches it, logs this warning via console.warn, waits 2500ms + (2500 * retries), and calls the function again until `retries` attempts are exhausted. It is not a thrown error; it signals a transient failure that the CLI is automatically recovering from.

Source

Thrown at packages/cli/src/commands/CreateProjectCommand.ts:51

}

async function withRetries<F extends (...args: unknown[]) => unknown>(
    func: F,
    retries: number,
    label: string,
): Promise<Awaited<ReturnType<F>>> {
    let attempt = 0;
    let lastError: any;

    while (attempt < retries) {
        try {
            return (await func()) as Awaited<ReturnType<F>>;
        } catch (error: any) {
            attempt++;
            lastError = error;

            if (attempt < retries) {
                console.warn(
                    `${colors.yellow(`[${label}]`)}: Attempt ${attempt + 1} of ${retries} failed, and will be retried`,
                    error.message || error,
                );
            }

            // Wait 2500ms + (2500 * retries) before giving up to give it some time between retries
            await setTimeout(2500 + 2500 * attempt);
        }
    }

    throw new Error(
        `${colors.red(`[${label}]`)}: All ${retries} attempts failed, and will not be retried\n\n${
            lastError.stack || lastError
        }`,
    );
}

async function downloadTemplateFilesToDisk(template: Template, destinationDirectory: string) {

View on GitHub (pinned to dbe57fb09c)

Solutions

1. Check network connectivity/proxy settings; if the underlying cause is fixed, retries will succeed on their own.
2. Inspect the trailing `error.message` printed after the warning to identify the real root cause (e.g. ENOTFOUND, 403, EACCES).
3. If failures are permanent, wait for the final failure after all retries and fix that root error instead of retrying.
4. Use a stable network or retry the CLI command later; if GitHub is rate limiting, authenticate or wait before retrying.

Example fix

// before: transient network failure triggers warning
npx apify create my-actor   // fails mid-download behind a proxy

// after: configure proxy so template download succeeds
export HTTPS_PROXY=http://proxy.corp.local:8080
npx apify create my-actor

// Before invoking the wrapped command, verify the network path is usable
if (!navigator.onLine) {
  throw new Error('Network is offline; template download will fail and retry.');
}
const res = await fetch('https://api.github.com', { method: 'HEAD' });
if (!res.ok) console.warn('Template host unreachable; retries may exhaust.');

try {
  await withRetries(() => downloadTemplateFilesToDisk(url, dir), { retries: 3, label: 'template-download' });
} catch (err) {
  // Only reached after all retries are exhausted
  console.error(`Template download failed after retries: ${err.message}`);
  process.exitCode = 1;
}

When it happens

Trigger: A call to `withRetries(downloadTemplateFilesToDisk, ...)` (or any function wrapped by it during `create` project scaffolding) throws on an attempt where `attempt < retries` — typically a network fetch of template files failing (timeout, DNS, 5xx, socket reset) or a filesystem write error.

Common situations: Flaky corporate network or proxy blocking downloads of the project template from GitHub; npm registry or GitHub rate limiting; offline/VPN interruption while running `apify create`; antivirus or disk permissions intermittently blocking file writes to the target directory.

Related errors

• ${colors.red(`[${label}]`)}: All ${retries} attempts failed,
• <dynamic: message extracted from proxied error via getMessag
• Request blocked - received ${statusCode} status code.
• ${this.getMessageFromError(error)}
• ${status} - Error status code was set by user.

AI-assisted analysis of apify/crawlee@dbe57fb09c (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/393de37b7816215e. Report an issue: GitHub.