diff --git a/actions/setup/js/error_recovery.cjs b/actions/setup/js/error_recovery.cjs
index d842c5923f..8751ed4c40 100644
--- a/actions/setup/js/error_recovery.cjs
+++ b/actions/setup/js/error_recovery.cjs
@@ -54,6 +54,7 @@ function isTransientError(error) {
     "secondary rate limit", // GitHub secondary rate limits
     "abuse detection", // GitHub abuse detection
     "temporarily unavailable",
+    "no server is currently available", // GitHub API server unavailability
   ];
 
   return transientPatterns.some(pattern => errorMsg.includes(pattern));
diff --git a/actions/setup/js/error_recovery.test.cjs b/actions/setup/js/error_recovery.test.cjs
index 02d0b0bdb2..45c4bacf26 100644
--- a/actions/setup/js/error_recovery.test.cjs
+++ b/actions/setup/js/error_recovery.test.cjs
@@ -37,6 +37,11 @@ describe("error_recovery", () => {
       expect(isTransientError(new Error("Abuse detection triggered"))).toBe(true);
     });
 
+    it("should identify GitHub server unavailability as transient", () => {
+      expect(isTransientError(new Error("No server is currently available to service your request"))).toBe(true);
+      expect(isTransientError(new Error("no server is currently available"))).toBe(true);
+    });
+
     it("should not identify validation errors as transient", () => {
       expect(isTransientError(new Error("Invalid input"))).toBe(false);
       expect(isTransientError(new Error("Field is required"))).toBe(false);
diff --git a/actions/setup/js/frontmatter_hash_github_api.test.cjs b/actions/setup/js/frontmatter_hash_github_api.test.cjs
index 63554be1f5..44ef183f09 100644
--- a/actions/setup/js/frontmatter_hash_github_api.test.cjs
+++ b/actions/setup/js/frontmatter_hash_github_api.test.cjs
@@ -1,8 +1,27 @@
 // @ts-check
-import { describe, it, expect, beforeAll } from "vitest";
+import { describe, it, expect, beforeAll, vi } from "vitest";
 const path = require("path");
 const fs = require("fs");
 const { computeFrontmatterHash, createGitHubFileReader } = require("./frontmatter_hash_pure.cjs");
+const { withRetry, isTransientError } = require("./error_recovery.cjs");
+
+// Retry configuration for live API tests
+const LIVE_API_RETRY_CONFIG = {
+  maxRetries: 3,
+  initialDelayMs: 1000,
+  shouldRetry: isTransientError,
+};
+
+/**
+ * Wraps a file reader function with retry logic for transient GitHub API errors
+ * @param {Function} fileReader - The original file reader function
+ * @returns {Function} File reader with retry logic
+ */
+function createRetryableFileReader(fileReader) {
+  return async function (filePath) {
+    return withRetry(async () => fileReader(filePath), LIVE_API_RETRY_CONFIG, `fetch file ${filePath}`);
+  };
+}
 
 /**
  * Tests for frontmatter hash computation using GitHub's API to fetch real workflows.
@@ -13,6 +32,14 @@ describe("frontmatter_hash with GitHub API", () => {
   let mockGitHub;
 
   beforeAll(() => {
+    // Mock @actions/core for retry logging in test environment
+    global.core = {
+      info: vi.fn((...args) => console.log(...args)),
+      warning: vi.fn((...args) => console.warn(...args)),
+      error: vi.fn((...args) => console.error(...args)),
+      debug: vi.fn((...args) => console.log(...args)),
+    };
+
     // Create a mock GitHub API client for testing
     // In real scenarios, this would be replaced with @actions/github
     mockGitHub = {
@@ -354,7 +381,10 @@ describe("frontmatter_hash with GitHub API", () => {
       const ref = "main";
 
       // Create file reader with real GitHub API
-      const fileReader = createGitHubFileReader(octokit, owner, repo, ref);
+      const baseFileReader = createGitHubFileReader(octokit, owner, repo, ref);
+
+      // Wrap with retry logic to handle transient GitHub API errors
+      const fileReader = createRetryableFileReader(baseFileReader);
 
       // Test with a real public agentic workflow
       const workflowPath = ".github/workflows/audit-workflows.md";