GPT-5 finding
External API calls lack explicit error handling, retries, and rate limit/backoff across multiple skills
mediummaintainabilitymedium
- skills/vvvkernel-audit/SKILL.md:28-38
- skills/vvvkernel-brief/SKILL.md:18-25
- skills/vvvkernel-growth/SKILL.md:24-30
- skills/vvvkernel-narrative/SKILL.md:42-52
- skills/vvvkernel/SKILL.md:35-39
- skills/vvvkernel-onchain/SKILL.md:70-72
Most skills make external calls (vvvkernel.com, Basescan, WebSearch) but do not define error handling for timeouts, non-200 responses, malformed JSON, or rate limits. Only Onchain Brief explicitly specifies notifying and exiting cleanly if the API is down. Lack of standardized error handling increases flakiness and operator confusion.
Recommendation
- Add a standard error-handling section to each skill: retry with exponential backoff on 429/5xx, explicit handling for 402, and clear notify-and-exit on persistent failure. - Validate and guard JSON parsing with schema checks; surface actionable error messages. - For Basescan/WebSearch, document API key usage and rate limits; include fallback providers if possible.