Handle Modrinth API returning 404s randomly

[sleiphir]

Enhancement Type

Improve an existing feature

Describe the enhancement

Here are linked modrinth issues
modrinth/code#2421
modrinth/code#2557

For some projects the Modrinth API will randomly return either a 404 or the expected JSON content that's used to determine what to download when using MODRINTH_PROJECT

As these issues have been opened for a little while I was wondering if there was anything that could be done to circumvent this problem. I'm not familiar with Modrinth's API so I don't know if there are any fallback routes that could be used.

Here is the issue that I get:

[mc-image-helper] 15:46:00.009 ERROR : 'modrinth' command failed. Version is 1.40.11
me.itzg.helpers.http.FailedRequestException: HTTP request of https://api.modrinth.com/v2/project/MdwFAVRL/version?loaders=%5B%22fabric%22%5D&game_versions=%5B%221.21.1%22%5D failed with 404 Not Found: Fetching object content

Trying to load the URL manually we can see that it sometimes displays the JSON and sometimes a 404.

Also, I don't think it's entirely random as trying to read the headers using curl I ALWAYS get a 404:

curl -I "https://api.modrinth.com/v2/project/MdwFAVRL/version?loaders=%5B%22fabric%22%5D&game_versions=%5B%221.21.1%22%5D"

But not using -I and reading the response directly works most of the time in my case.

For now I can solve the problem by manually adding this mod to my server but I want people to be aware that this is a thing.

[itzg]

I'm not sure if there's anything I can do. The behavior of 3rd party APIs is beyond my control.

Thanks for researching and linking to their issues. I think all we can do is wait for them to fix those issues.

[sleiphir]

I guess there is not much we can do indeed, maybe adding a disclaimer to the MODRINTH_PROJECT option would help redirect users to better solutions early. Until Modrinth looks into it further which might never happen.

[sleiphir]

I found that the /v2/projects endpoint does not have this problem.

Calling https://api.modrinth.com/v2/projects?ids=%5B%22MdwFAVRL%22%5D always works, but I don't know if it can be adapted to work the same way /v2/project is being used right now.

[itzg]

I found that the /v2/projects endpoint does not have this problem.

Calling https://api.modrinth.com/v2/projects?ids=%5B%22MdwFAVRL%22%5D always works, but I don't know if it can be adapted to work the same way /v2/project is being used right now.

The image tooling is already using /v2/projects and is not using /v2/project. It's using https://docs.modrinth.com/api/operations/getproject/ if that's what you mean...but the two endpoints serve different purposes so the code can't just arbitrarily call one instead of the other.

maybe adding a disclaimer to the MODRINTH_PROJECT option would help redirect users to better solutions early

Your issue is the first I'm hearing of any of this, so I am quite hesitant to put a documentation level disclaimer at this point. If I start hearing of numerous users running into this, then I can reconsider. BTW, what "better solutions" do you propose?

[sleiphir]

If we look at the issues I linked to in my first message we can see this has been a problem for some people for at least the past 6 months. Now the issue is that I don't know the actual size of 'some people' I only know 3 of them. Maybe a first step would be for you to try to call https://api.modrinth.com/v2/project/MdwFAVRL/version?loaders=%5B%22fabric%22%5D&game_versions=%5B%221.21.1%22%5D a few times and see if you ever get a 404, it happens about 1/3rd of the time for me.

[Qirivaal]

I'm having this issue as well

[itzg]

Everyone, please add comments and upvote the linked issues. The only solution is to get Modrinth's attention on this to fix it.