CI: NATS integration test fails due to version extraction error

[corylanou]

Problem

The NATS integration test in CI is failing because the NATS CLI version extraction is returning an empty string, resulting in a 404 error when trying to download the CLI binary.

Error

ERROR 404: Not Found

The wget command tries to download from:

https://github.com/nats-io/natscli/releases/download/v/nats--linux-amd64.zip

Notice the version is completely missing: v/ instead of v0.3.0/

Root Cause

File: .github/workflows/commit.yml
Line: 223

NATS_VERSION=$(curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/nats-io/natscli/releases/latest | grep '"tag_name":' | sed -E 's/.*"v([^"]+)".*/\1/')

This command is failing to extract the version, likely due to:

1. GitHub API rate limiting - CI may hit rate limits
2. Transient network issues during API call
3. Fragile regex pattern that doesn't handle all edge cases

Impact

• ❌ NATS integration tests fail
• ✅ All other CI checks pass
• Not blocking development work on directory-watcher or other features

Recommended Solution

Replace the fragile grep/sed approach with jq for reliable JSON parsing:

# Before (fragile)
NATS_VERSION=$(curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/nats-io/natscli/releases/latest | grep '"tag_name":' | sed -E 's/.*"v([^"]+)".*/\1/')

# After (robust)
NATS_VERSION=$(curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/nats-io/natscli/releases/latest | jq -r '.tag_name' | sed 's/^v//')
if [ -z "$NATS_VERSION" ]; then
  echo "Failed to get NATS CLI version from GitHub API"
  exit 1
fi

Benefits:

• jq is pre-installed on GitHub Actions runners
• Proper JSON parsing instead of regex
• Error handling to fail fast with clear message
• More maintainable

Alternative Quick Fix

Temporarily pin the version until the proper fix is implemented:

NATS_VERSION="0.3.0"

Context

Discovered while testing PR #827 (directory-watcher feature). The failure is unrelated to that PR's code changes.

Failing Check: Run NATS Integration Tests
Duration: Fails in ~15 seconds
All Other Checks: Passing ✅

Tasks

• Update .github/workflows/commit.yml line 223 to use jq
• Add error handling for version extraction
• Test the fix in CI
• Consider if other workflows have similar fragile patterns