CI: flaky 'Verify global install from pack' due to transient kubo binary download failures (dist.ipfs.tech 502)

[Rinse12]

Problem

The Verify global install from pack step in .github/workflows/CI.yml intermittently fails on all OS runners (observed on macOS and ubuntu). It is not a test failure and not OS-specific.

npm install -g of the packed tarball runs the kubo package postinstall (node src/post-install.js), which downloads the kubo binary from https://dist.ipfs.tech/kubo/versions. When that public CDN returns a transient error the install aborts with no retry:

npm error path .../node_modules/kubo
npm error command sh -c node src/post-install.js
npm error https://dist.ipfs.tech/kubo/versions
npm error HTTPError: Response code 502 (Bad Gateway)  (ERR_NON_2XX_3XX_RESPONSE)

npm ci earlier usually succeeds because of the npm/kubo binary cache; the global install into a fresh prefix forces an uncached download, exposing it to CDN flakiness. With fail-fast: false this shows up as scattered single-OS red jobs.

Plan

• Wrap the npm install -g in a bounded retry loop so a single transient CDN response no longer fails CI.

Verification

• Confirm CI is green across all three OS runners after the change.

[Rinse12]

Implemented in 6262e96 (pushed to master): wrapped the npm install -g in the Verify global install from pack step with a 3-attempt retry (15s backoff) so a single transient kubo CDN response no longer fails CI. Leaving this open until a few CI runs confirm it's green across all three OS runners.

[Rinse12]

First pass only retried the global-install step, but the next run showed the same dist.ipfs.tech 502 hitting npm ci instead — the kubo postinstall download runs in every install step. Extended the retry to npm ci as well in 2243a7f.