Node.js "read ECONNRESET" - Flaky HTTP Test in CI

By Kaveh Alemi·Latchkey

The remote side reset the TCP connection while Node was reading from it. In CI this is a classic flaky-test failure - a keep-alive socket closed, a proxy dropped the connection, or the network blipped.

What this error means

An HTTP test intermittently fails with read ECONNRESET. Re-running the same job usually passes, which is the signature of a transient connection reset rather than a real bug.

node

Error: read ECONNRESET
    at TCP.onStreamRead (node:internal/stream_base_commons:217:20)
  errno: -104,
  code: 'ECONNRESET',
  syscall: 'read'

Common causes

The peer closed a keep-alive connection

A server or proxy closed an idle keep-alive socket just as the client reused it, producing a reset mid-read. This is intermittent.

A transient network reset

A momentary network disruption between the runner and the host resets the connection. It is not deterministic.

How to fix it

Retry transient resets

Wrap the request in a bounded retry that treats ECONNRESET as retryable.

test/helpers.ts

async function withRetry(fn, tries = 3) {
  for (let i = 0; i < tries; i++) {
    try { return await fn(); }
    catch (e) { if (e.code !== 'ECONNRESET' || i === tries - 1) throw e; }
  }
}

Disable keep-alive reuse in tests

Use a fresh connection per test request so a stale keep-alive socket cannot be reset under you.

test/http.ts

const res = await fetch(url, { headers: { Connection: 'close' } });

How to prevent it

Add bounded retries for ECONNRESET in network-bound tests.
Avoid reusing keep-alive sockets across flaky test boundaries.
Isolate real-network tests so resets do not fail unrelated suites.

Frequently asked questions

What causes ""read ECONNRESET""?