What causes "Failed to get GitHub release version for '{repo}'" in xtekky/gpt4free?

Curl the endpoint to see the real cause: curl -i https://api.github.com/repos/ /releases/latest (403 = rate limit, 404 = bad repo)

xtekky/gpt4free · warning · VersionNotFoundError

Failed to get GitHub release version for '{repo}'

Error message

Failed to get GitHub release version for '{repo}'

What it means

The catch-all branch of get_github_version in g4f/version.py wraps any exception raised while fetching https://api.github.com/repos/{repo}/releases/latest — network errors, non-2xx statuses from raise_for_status(), JSON decode errors — into VersionNotFoundError('Failed to get GitHub release version for \'{repo}\''). The inner 'No tag_name' raise is also caught here, so both paths surface with this message.

Source

Thrown at g4f/version.py:62

    Raises:
        VersionNotFoundError: If there is a network or parsing error.
    """
    try:
        import requests

        response = requests.get(
            f"https://api.github.com/repos/{repo}/releases/latest",
            timeout=REQUEST_TIMEOUT,
        )
        response.raise_for_status()
        data = response.json()
        if "tag_name" not in data:
            raise VersionNotFoundError(
                f"No tag_name found in latest GitHub release for '{repo}'"
            )
        return data["tag_name"]
    except Exception as e:
        raise VersionNotFoundError(
            f"Failed to get GitHub release version for '{repo}'"
        ) from e


def get_git_version() -> str | None:
    """Return latest Git tag if available, else None."""
    try:
        return check_output(
            ["git", "describe", "--tags", "--abbrev=0"], text=True, stderr=PIPE
        ).strip()
    except (CalledProcessError, FileNotFoundError):
        return None


class VersionUtils:
    """
    Utility class for managing and comparing package versions of 'g4f'.
    """

View on GitHub (pinned to 973504e177)

Solutions

Curl the endpoint to see the real cause: curl -i https://api.github.com/repos/<repo>/releases/latest (403 = rate limit, 404 = bad repo)
If rate-limited, add a GITHUB_TOKEN-authenticated request or check less frequently
Fix the repo slug if it 404s
Catch VersionNotFoundError and degrade gracefully to another version source (PyPI/git tags)

Example fix

# before
latest = get_github_version('xtekky/gpt4free')

# after
from g4f.version import get_github_version, VersionNotFoundError
try:
    latest = get_github_version('xtekky/gpt4free')
except VersionNotFoundError as e:
    latest = None  # log e.__cause__ for the underlying reason

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

import requests

def github_api_ok(repo: str) -> bool:
    try:
        r = requests.get(
            f"https://api.github.com/repos/{repo}/releases/latest", timeout=5
        )
        return r.status_code == 200
    except requests.RequestException:
        return False

Try / catch

from g4f.version import get_github_version, VersionNotFoundError

try:
    v = get_github_version("xtekky/gpt4free")
except VersionNotFoundError as e:
    cause = e.__cause__  # requests.HTTPError / ConnectionError — real reason
    v = None

Prevention

Authenticate GitHub API calls or check infrequently to avoid 403 rate limits
Catch VersionNotFoundError around every update check
Log e.__cause__ to distinguish rate-limit vs network vs parse failures

When it happens

Trigger: Calling get_github_version(repo) when offline, DNS fails, a proxy blocks api.github.com, GitHub returns 403 (rate limit: 60 req/hr unauthenticated) or 404 (wrong repo slug), or the body is not valid JSON.

Common situations: Unauthenticated GitHub API rate limits hit by frequent update checks; CI runners with restricted egress; typos in the repo name; GitHub API outages.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of xtekky/gpt4free@973504e177 (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/5b29f45ceb8c7493. Report an issue: GitHub.