Let's merge this fix ASAP to unblock PRs and follow up with a nicer solution later.
On Thu, Nov 20, 2025 at 9:42 AM Dmitri Bourlatchkov <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi All, > > Indeed, markdown link checks are inherently flaky because they rely on > external resources to be cooperative. This hinders PR progress. > > Here's a recent example [1]: > > ERROR: 1 dead links found! > [✖] > https://medium.com/@jitenderkmr/demystifying-snowflake-ids-a-unique-identifier-in-distributed-computing-72796a827c9d > → Status: 403 > > That link works fine in a browser. > > So +1 to remove markdown link checks (we can always fix when people report > dead links). > [1] > https://github.com/apache/polaris/actions/runs/19534001072/job/55941993028?pr=2802 > > Cheers, > Dmitri. > > On Thu, Nov 20, 2025 at 6:12 AM Robert Stupp <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Hi all, >> >> As Adam recently mentioned [1], the "Check Markdown links" workflow is >> known to regularly produce false failures. >> >> It seems that some external sites have somewhat aggressive rate limits >> and/or bot protections in place that lead to these false failures. >> >> We cannot control nor work around those externally controlled things. >> PRs are getting blocked by these false failures. Retrying the workflow >> does not help. And if the mentioned assumptions are correct, retrying >> actually makes the (rate limit) situation even worse, leading to >> other/more false failures from "Check Markdown links". >> >> I propose to remove "Check Markdown links" from the required checks >> [2]. The workflow would still run, but not block PRs. Reviewers can >> still inspect and cross-check potential failures from that workflow. >> >> Thoughts? >> >> Robert >> >> [1] https://github.com/apache/polaris/issues/3097 >> [2] https://github.com/apache/polaris/pull/3102 >> >
