fix(http): expand retry budget + use exponential backoff on DNS failure

Transient DNS resolution failures (socket.gaierror, surfaced as
urllib.error.URLError with reason=gaierror) were retried with the
generic URLError handler — linear backoff (2s, 4s, 6s) and bounded by
the caller-passed `retries` parameter. For callers that pass small
retry values (e.g. lib/reddit.py::_subreddit_search uses retries=2), a
single first-attempt DNS hiccup followed by one quick retry on the
still-flaky resolver would exhaust the retry budget and wipe a whole
subreddit sweep — which the caller's broad `except Exception` then
silent-empties as `[]`.

Fix:
- Distinguish URLError-with-gaierror-reason from generic URLError via
  a new `_is_dns_failure()` helper.
- For DNS failures, use exponential backoff (1s, 2s, 4s, ...) instead
  of the linear default.
- For DNS failures, expand the effective retry budget to at least
  MIN_DNS_RETRIES (=3) on first occurrence, so callers that passed
  `retries=2` still get a meaningful retry budget for the transient
  case. Non-DNS URLErrors and HTTPErrors keep the caller's value.
- DNS attempts are counted separately (`dns_attempts`) so unrelated
  URLError or OSError failures within the same call don't accidentally
  expand the budget further.

Reported during a community-signal pass where the Reddit subreddit
sweep silently returned zero items after a first-round transient DNS
hiccup. The fix lives at the http layer (where the retry loop is)
rather than per-source so every caller benefits.

Tests:
- Verifies a caller-passed retries=2 still gets MIN_DNS_RETRIES=3
  attempts on gaierror.
- Verifies gaierror-then-success returns successfully on attempt 2.
- Verifies the exponential-backoff sleep pattern (1s, 2s) on the
  retry attempts before exhaustion.
- Verifies a non-DNS URLError (ConnectionRefusedError reason) does
  NOT expand the retry budget — only true DNS failures do.

All 12 http tests pass (8 baseline + 4 new). No regressions in the
broader test suite (1373 pass / 14 fail, vs 1369 pass / 14 fail on
main — the 14 failures are pre-existing and unrelated to this PR).

skills/last30days/scripts/lib/http.py

@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 
 import json
 import re
+import socket
 import sys
 import time
 import urllib.error
@@ -22,9 +23,19 @@ def log(msg: str):
 MAX_RETRIES = 5
 MAX_429_RETRIES = 2
 RETRY_DELAY = 2.0
+# DNS resolution failures (gaierror) are transient — typically resolved by a
+# brief backoff and retry. Use a dedicated minimum attempt count + exponential
+# delays (1s, 2s, 4s) so callers that pass a small `retries` value still get a
+# meaningful chance to recover from a transient resolution failure.
+MIN_DNS_RETRIES = 3
 USER_AGENT = "last30days-skill/3.0 (Assistant Skill)"
 
 
+def _is_dns_failure(err: urllib.error.URLError) -> bool:
+    """Return True if a URLError was caused by DNS resolution (gaierror)."""
+    return isinstance(getattr(err, "reason", None), socket.gaierror)
+
+
 class HTTPError(Exception):
     """HTTP request error with status code."""
     def __init__(self, message: str, status_code: Optional[int] = None, body: Optional[str] = None):
@@ -85,7 +96,13 @@ def request(
 
     last_error = None
     rate_limit_count = 0
-    for attempt in range(retries):
+    # DNS failures get a dedicated minimum attempt count + exponential backoff.
+    # `effective_retries` is the actual loop bound; we expand it on the first
+    # gaierror if the caller passed a smaller `retries` value than MIN_DNS_RETRIES.
+    effective_retries = retries
+    dns_attempts = 0
+    attempt = 0
+    while attempt < effective_retries:
         try:
             with urllib.request.urlopen(req, timeout=timeout) as response:
                 body = response.read().decode('utf-8')
@@ -115,7 +132,7 @@ def request(
                 if rate_limit_count >= max_429_retries:
                     raise last_error
 
-            if attempt < retries - 1:
+            if attempt < effective_retries - 1:
                 if e.code == 429:
                     # Respect Retry-After header, fall back to exponential backoff
                     retry_after = e.headers.get("Retry-After") if hasattr(e, 'headers') else None
@@ -126,14 +143,34 @@ def request(
                             delay = RETRY_DELAY * (2 ** attempt) + 1
                     else:
                         delay = RETRY_DELAY * (2 ** attempt) + 1  # 3s, 5s, 9s...
-                    log(f"Rate limited (429). Waiting {delay:.1f}s before retry {attempt + 2}/{retries}")
+                    log(f"Rate limited (429). Waiting {delay:.1f}s before retry {attempt + 2}/{effective_retries}")
                 else:
                     delay = RETRY_DELAY * (2 ** attempt)
                 time.sleep(delay)
         except urllib.error.URLError as e:
             log(f"URL Error: {e.reason}")
             last_error = HTTPError(f"URL Error: {e.reason}")
-            if attempt < retries - 1:
+            if _is_dns_failure(e):
+                # DNS resolution failures are transient; expand the retry budget
+                # to MIN_DNS_RETRIES if the caller passed fewer, and use
+                # exponential backoff (1s, 2s, 4s, ...) instead of the linear
+                # default. Counts DNS attempts separately so other URLError
+                # causes don't bypass the regular retry budget.
+                dns_attempts += 1
+                if effective_retries < MIN_DNS_RETRIES:
+                    log(
+                        f"DNS resolution failed; expanding retry budget from "
+                        f"{effective_retries} to {MIN_DNS_RETRIES}"
+                    )
+                    effective_retries = MIN_DNS_RETRIES
+                if attempt < effective_retries - 1:
+                    delay = 2 ** (dns_attempts - 1)  # 1s, 2s, 4s, 8s, ...
+                    log(
+                        f"DNS resolution failure (attempt {dns_attempts}); "
+                        f"retrying in {delay:.1f}s"
+                    )
+                    time.sleep(delay)
+            elif attempt < effective_retries - 1:
                 time.sleep(RETRY_DELAY * (attempt + 1))
         except json.JSONDecodeError as e:
             log(f"JSON decode error: {e}")
@@ -143,9 +180,11 @@ def request(
             # Handle socket-level errors (connection reset, timeout, etc.)
             log(f"Connection error: {type(e).__name__}: {e}")
             last_error = HTTPError(f"Connection error: {type(e).__name__}: {e}")
-            if attempt < retries - 1:
+            if attempt < effective_retries - 1:
                 time.sleep(RETRY_DELAY * (attempt + 1))
 
+        attempt += 1
+
     if last_error:
         raise last_error
     raise HTTPError("Request failed with no error details")

tests/test_http_v3.py

@@ -104,3 +104,79 @@ class TestParamsEncoding(unittest.TestCase):
         sent_url = self._sent_url(mock_urlopen)
         self.assertIn("count=25", sent_url)
         self.assertIn("raw=True", sent_url)
+
+
+class TestDNSResolutionRetry(unittest.TestCase):
+    """DNS resolution failures (gaierror) must retry with exponential backoff.
+
+    Caller-passed `retries` values smaller than MIN_DNS_RETRIES are expanded
+    on the first gaierror so a transient resolution failure doesn't wipe a
+    request just because the caller passed retries=2.
+    """
+
+    @patch("lib.http.urllib.request.urlopen")
+    @patch("lib.http.time.sleep")
+    def test_gaierror_retries_up_to_min_dns_retries_even_when_caller_passes_fewer(
+        self, mock_sleep, mock_urlopen
+    ):
+        """Caller passed retries=2; gaierror should still get MIN_DNS_RETRIES attempts."""
+        import socket
+        err = urllib.error.URLError(socket.gaierror(-2, "Name or service not known"))
+        mock_urlopen.side_effect = err
+
+        with self.assertRaises(http.HTTPError):
+            http.request("GET", "http://nonexistent.example", retries=2)
+
+        # Caller passed retries=2, but the budget expanded to MIN_DNS_RETRIES=3.
+        self.assertEqual(mock_urlopen.call_count, http.MIN_DNS_RETRIES)
+
+    @patch("lib.http.urllib.request.urlopen")
+    @patch("lib.http.time.sleep")
+    def test_gaierror_succeeds_after_transient_failure(self, mock_sleep, mock_urlopen):
+        """gaierror on attempt 1, then success — should NOT raise."""
+        import socket
+        success_response = MagicMock()
+        success_response.read.return_value = b'{"ok": true}'
+        success_response.status = 200
+        success_response.__enter__ = lambda self: self
+        success_response.__exit__ = lambda *args: None
+
+        err = urllib.error.URLError(socket.gaierror(-2, "Name or service not known"))
+        mock_urlopen.side_effect = [err, success_response]
+
+        result = http.request("GET", "http://flaky.example", retries=2)
+
+        self.assertEqual(result, {"ok": True})
+        self.assertEqual(mock_urlopen.call_count, 2)
+
+    @patch("lib.http.urllib.request.urlopen")
+    @patch("lib.http.time.sleep")
+    def test_gaierror_uses_exponential_backoff(self, mock_sleep, mock_urlopen):
+        """Backoff delays for gaierror should be 1s, 2s, 4s — not the linear default."""
+        import socket
+        err = urllib.error.URLError(socket.gaierror(-2, "Name or service not known"))
+        mock_urlopen.side_effect = err
+
+        with self.assertRaises(http.HTTPError):
+            http.request("GET", "http://nonexistent.example", retries=3)
+
+        # Expected sleep calls: 1s (after attempt 1), 2s (after attempt 2).
+        # No sleep after the final attempt (the loop exits to raise).
+        sleep_delays = [call.args[0] for call in mock_sleep.call_args_list]
+        self.assertEqual(sleep_delays, [1, 2])
+
+    @patch("lib.http.urllib.request.urlopen")
+    @patch("lib.http.time.sleep")
+    def test_non_dns_urlerror_uses_linear_backoff_not_dns_branch(
+        self, mock_sleep, mock_urlopen
+    ):
+        """A URLError that's NOT a gaierror must NOT expand the retry budget."""
+        # ConnectionRefusedError-style URLError reason (not gaierror)
+        err = urllib.error.URLError(ConnectionRefusedError(111, "Connection refused"))
+        mock_urlopen.side_effect = err
+
+        with self.assertRaises(http.HTTPError):
+            http.request("GET", "http://refused.example", retries=2)
+
+        # Caller passed retries=2, and non-DNS URLError doesn't expand it.
+        self.assertEqual(mock_urlopen.call_count, 2)