thedotmack/claude-mem · warning

Worker API ${method} ${url} returned ${response.status}; ski

Error message

Worker API ${method} ${url} returned ${response.status}; skipping hook API call

What it means

A hook's HTTP call to the worker (workerHttpRequest) got a non-ok response. For 429 or >=500 the hook logs this warning with the first 200 chars of the body, resets the worker failure counter, and returns a branded soft-fallback {continue: true, reason: 'worker_api_<status>'} so the hook completes without worker data rather than failing the Claude event. Other 4xx statuses are parsed as the endpoint's normal JSON error payload instead.

Source

Thrown at src/shared/worker-utils.ts:879

  if (options.timeoutMs !== undefined) {
    init.timeoutMs = options.timeoutMs;
  }

  let response: Response;
  try {
    response = await workerHttpRequest(url, init);
  } catch (error) {
    if (!boundedStartup) throw error;
    logger.debug('SYSTEM', 'Worker unavailable for best-effort hook call', {
      error: error instanceof Error ? error.message : String(error),
    });
    return { continue: true, reason: 'worker_unreachable', [WORKER_FALLBACK_BRAND]: true };
  }
  if (!response.ok) {
    const text = await response.text().catch(() => '');
    resetWorkerFailureCounter();
    if (response.status === 429 || response.status >= 500) {
      logger.warn('SYSTEM', `Worker API ${method} ${url} returned ${response.status}; skipping hook API call`, {
        body: text.substring(0, 200),
      });
      return {
        continue: true,
        reason: `worker_api_${response.status}`,
        [WORKER_FALLBACK_BRAND]: true,
      };
    }

    let parsed: unknown = text;
    try { parsed = JSON.parse(text); } catch { /* keep raw text */ }
    return parsed as T;
  }

  resetWorkerFailureCounter();
  const text = await response.text();
  if (text.length === 0) return undefined as unknown as T;
  try {

View on GitHub (pinned to 8bc631a71a)

Solutions

1. Usually transient — the next hook event retries; confirm the warning does not repeat.
2. Read the logged body snippet to find the worker-side error and fix that route.
3. Reduce concurrent sessions/hook load against a single worker, or space out session starts.
4. If 429 dominates, tune the worker's rate limits or increase the timeout budget so requests queue instead of rejecting.

Example fix

// before
const response = await workerHttpRequest(url, init);
if (!response.ok) throw new Error(`worker API failed: ${response.status}`);

// after
const response = await workerHttpRequest(url, init);
if (!response.ok && (response.status === 429 || response.status >= 500)) {
  logger.warn('SYSTEM', `Worker API ${method} ${url} returned ${response.status}; skipping hook API call`, {
    body: (await response.text().catch(() => '')).substring(0, 200),
  });
  return { continue: true, reason: `worker_api_${response.status}`, [WORKER_FALLBACK_BRAND]: true };
}

if (response.status === 429 || response.status >= 500) {
  // transient — soft-fallback this event and let the next hook retry
  return { continue: true, reason: `worker_api_${response.status}` };
}

const isTransientWorkerStatus = (status: number): boolean =>
  status === 429 || status >= 500;

try {
  const response = await workerHttpRequest(url, init);
  if (isTransientWorkerStatus(response.status)) return softFallback(response.status);
  return parseBody(await response.text());
} catch (e) {
  // network-level failure to the local worker — same soft-fallback semantics
  return { continue: true, reason: 'worker_api_unreachable' };
}

When it happens

Trigger: POST/GET to a worker endpoint returns 429 (worker-side rate limiting) or 5xx (exception inside a worker route handler) — e.g., a burst of concurrent hook calls, or a thrown error in the route serving method+url.

Common situations: Many parallel Claude sessions hammering one worker; a worker route bug throwing 500; backpressure while summarization/observation queue is saturated.

Related errors

• Generator paused for ${abortCategory}; preserving buffered w
• Transcript path missing or file does not exist: ${transcript
• Transcript file exists but is empty: ${transcriptPath}
• Invalid mode inheritance: ${modeId}. Only one level of inher
• Invalid mode ID: ${modeId}

AI-assisted analysis of thedotmack/claude-mem@8bc631a71a (2026-08-20). Data as JSON: /api/errors/1f9a6cc39bfb55f6. Report an issue: GitHub.