Outdated package.json "repository" field fails when creating release

[tusbar]

I’ve had this issue twice already, so posting here to share and potentially fix the issue in here, or maybe (most likely?) it’s an issue with the GitHub API.

If you rename a repository, and forget to update the repository field in package.json, this plugin fails when creating a release with the following error:

[9:38:17 AM] [semantic-release] › ℹ  Start step "publish" of plugin "@semantic-release/github"
[9:38:32 AM] [semantic-release] › ✘  Failed step "publish" of plugin "@semantic-release/github"
[9:38:32 AM] [semantic-release] › ✘  An error occurred while running semantic-release: RequestError [HttpError]: fetch failed
    at /home/runner/work/serverless-plugin-env-stage-config/serverless-plugin-env-stage-config/node_modules/.pnpm/@[email protected]/node_modules/@octokit/request/dist-node/index.js:136:11
    at async requestWithGraphqlErrorHandling (/home/runner/work/serverless-plugin-env-stage-config/serverless-plugin-env-stage-config/node_modules/.pnpm/@[email protected]_@[email protected]/node_modules/@octokit/plugin-retry/dist-node/index.js:71:20)
    at async Job.doExecute (/home/runner/work/serverless-plugin-env-stage-config/serverless-plugin-env-stage-config/node_modules/.pnpm/[email protected]/node_modules/bottleneck/light.js:405:18) {
  status: 500,
  request: {
    method: 'POST',
    url: 'https://api.github.com/repos/bizon/serverless-plugin-stage-config/releases',
    headers: {
      accept: 'application/vnd.github.v3+json',
      'user-agent': '@semantic-release/github v9.0.4 octokit-core.js/5.0.0 Node.js/20.11.1 (linux; x64)',
      authorization: 'token [REDACTED]',
      'content-type': 'application/json; charset=utf-8'
    },
    body: '{"tag_name":"v1.3.7","target_commitish":"master","name":"v1.3.7","body":"## [1.3.7](https://github.com/bizon/serverless-plugin-stage-config/compare/v1.3.6...v1.3.7) (2024-03-29)\\n\\n\\n### Bug Fixes\\n\\n* re-release ([3a067ca](https://github.com/bizon/serverless-plugin-stage-config/commit/3a067ca38cc[60](https://github.com/bizon/serverless-plugin-env-stage-config/actions/runs/8479540859/job/23233712289#step:6:61)c8fa862cddc20a32b8673a79cd0))\\n\\n\\n\\n","prerelease":false}',
    request: {
      agent: undefined,
      hook: [Function: bound bound register],
      retryCount: 3,
      retries: 3,
      retryAfter: 16
    }
  },
  pluginName: '@semantic-release/github'
}

The package was renamed from serverless-plugin-stage-config to serverless-plugin-env-stage-config. The redirections are still active, but POSTing a new release fails with a 500 error.

[tusbar]

Maybe there could be an extra step in verify that checks if the repository field is valid?

[gr2m]

I would love that, I ran into this problem several times myself and saw countless others run into it as well