diff --git a/.github/workflows/chart-pr.yml b/.github/workflows/chart-pr.yml
index fb979cf..be751b5 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/chart-pr.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/chart-pr.yml
@@ -24,10 +24,30 @@ jobs:
     name: Semver label
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     permissions:
+      contents: read            # check out the label script
       pull-requests: write
     outputs:
       bump: ${{ steps.label.outputs.bump }}
     steps:
+      - name: Locate this workflow
+        env:
+          WORKFLOW_REPOSITORY: ${{ job.workflow_repository }}
+          WORKFLOW_SHA: ${{ job.workflow_sha }}
+        run: |
+          if [ -z "$WORKFLOW_REPOSITORY" ] || [ -z "$WORKFLOW_SHA" ]; then
+            echo "::error::job.workflow_repository and job.workflow_sha are empty: this workflow has to run as a reusable workflow on github.com"
+            exit 1
+          fi
+          echo "Using $WORKFLOW_REPOSITORY@$WORKFLOW_SHA"
+
+      - name: Check out the label script
+        uses: actions/checkout@08c6903cd8c0fde910a37f88322edcfb5dd907a8 # v5.0.0
+        with:
+          repository: ${{ job.workflow_repository }}
+          ref: ${{ job.workflow_sha }}
+          path: chart-workflows
+          persist-credentials: false
+
       # The labels the pull request has now, not the ones of the event that started the run: a pull
       # request opened with a label (gh pr create --label) gets it right after the `opened` event, and
       # the `labeled` event of the workflow token starts no run. Reading them now also lets a re-run
@@ -36,18 +56,13 @@ jobs:
         id: label
         env:
           GH_TOKEN: ${{ github.token }}
+          EVENT: pull_request
           PR: ${{ github.event.pull_request.number }}
-        run: |
-          LABELS=$(gh api "repos/$GITHUB_REPOSITORY/pulls/$PR" --jq '[.labels[].name]')
-          bumps=$(jq -r '[.[] | select(. == "major" or . == "minor" or . == "patch")] | join(" ")' <<< "$LABELS")
-          if [ "$(wc -w <<< "$bumps")" -ne 1 ]; then
-            echo "::error::The pull request needs exactly one of the labels major, minor or patch (found: ${bumps:-none})"
-            exit 1
-          fi
-          echo "bump=$bumps" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
+        run: chart-workflows/scripts/semver-label.sh
 
+      # only when the label is the problem: a failure of the GitHub API is not the author's to fix
       - name: Ask for the label
-        if: failure() && steps.label.outcome == 'failure'
+        if: failure() && steps.label.outputs.label-missing == 'true'
         env:
           GH_TOKEN: ${{ github.token }}
           PR: ${{ github.event.pull_request.number }}
diff --git a/.github/workflows/semver-version.yml b/.github/workflows/semver-version.yml
index 522e6af..e29db07 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/semver-version.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/semver-version.yml
@@ -77,8 +77,9 @@ jobs:
           DEFAULT_BUMP: ${{ inputs.default-bump }}
         run: ../semver-workflows/scripts/semver-label.sh
 
+      # only when the label is the problem: a failure of the GitHub API is not the author's to fix
       - name: Ask for the label
-        if: failure() && steps.label.outcome == 'failure' && github.event_name == 'pull_request'
+        if: failure() && steps.label.outputs.label-missing == 'true' && github.event_name == 'pull_request'
         env:
           GH_TOKEN: ${{ github.token }}
           PR: ${{ github.event.pull_request.number }}
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index f83c934..81e5631 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ jobs:
 
 For repositories that release Helm charts from a `charts/` directory, with the version of each chart driven by the semver label of the pull request that changes it. On every pull request it:
 
-1. requires exactly one of the labels `major`, `minor` or `patch`, and comments on the pull request when it is missing. The labels are read when the job runs, not from the event that started it, so a label added right after the pull request was opened counts, and re-running the job picks up a label added later;
+1. requires exactly one of the labels `major`, `minor` or `patch`, and comments on the pull request when it is missing. The labels are read when the job runs, not from the event that started it, so a label added right after the pull request was opened counts, and re-running the job picks up a label added later. The call to the GitHub API is retried, and when it keeps failing the job fails without asking for the label;
 2. bumps the `version` of every chart the pull request changes: its version on the base branch, bumped by the label. A chart that is not on the base branch yet keeps its version;
 3. commits the new versions ("Update helm chart versions") to the pull request branch. A pull request from a fork, which the workflow token cannot push to, fails instead, listing the versions its author has to set.
 
diff --git a/scripts/semver-label.sh b/scripts/semver-label.sh
index fda6a6f..785b194 100755
--- a/scripts/semver-label.sh
+++ b/scripts/semver-label.sh
@@ -7,6 +7,10 @@
 # major, minor and patch. On a push, DEFAULT_BUMP, when set, is used instead of failing when no
 # merged pull request contains the commit or it has no such label.
 #
+# The GitHub API calls are retried: a transient error answers with an HTML page or a 5xx. When they
+# keep failing, the script exits with 2, and with 1 when the label is the problem; only then it also
+# writes label-missing=true, so that the caller asks for the label only when it is missing.
+#
 # Environment:
 #   EVENT         pull_request or push (required)
 #   PR            pull request number, on a pull request
@@ -14,7 +18,9 @@
 #   DEFAULT_BUMP  major, minor or patch for a push without a labelled pull request (default: none)
 #   REPOSITORY    owner/repo (default: $GITHUB_REPOSITORY)
 #   GH            gh binary (default: gh)
-#   GITHUB_OUTPUT when set, receives bump=<bump>
+#   RETRIES       attempts of each GitHub API call (default: 3)
+#   RETRY_DELAY   seconds between them (default: 5)
+#   GITHUB_OUTPUT when set, receives bump=<bump>, or label-missing=true
 
 set -euo pipefail
 
@@ -22,20 +28,46 @@ set -euo pipefail
 DEFAULT_BUMP="${DEFAULT_BUMP:-}"
 REPOSITORY="${REPOSITORY:-${GITHUB_REPOSITORY:?REPOSITORY or GITHUB_REPOSITORY must name the repository}}"
 GH="${GH:-gh}"
+RETRIES="${RETRIES:-3}"
+RETRY_DELAY="${RETRY_DELAY:-5}"
 
 case "$DEFAULT_BUMP" in
     ""|major|minor|patch) ;;
     *) echo "::error::DEFAULT_BUMP must be major, minor or patch, got '$DEFAULT_BUMP'" >&2; exit 1 ;;
 esac
 
+# api <gh api arguments>: prints the response, retrying the call
+api() {
+    local attempt response
+    for ((attempt = 1; attempt <= RETRIES; attempt++)); do
+        if response=$("$GH" api "$@"); then
+            printf '%s\n' "$response"
+            return 0
+        fi
+        if [ "$attempt" -lt "$RETRIES" ]; then
+            echo "The GitHub API call failed (attempt $attempt of $RETRIES), retrying in ${RETRY_DELAY}s" >&2
+            sleep "$RETRY_DELAY"
+        fi
+    done
+    echo "::error::The GitHub API call failed $RETRIES times, so the semver label could not be read" >&2
+    return 1
+}
+
+# label_missing <message>: fails because of the label itself
+label_missing() {
+    echo "::error::$1" >&2
+    echo "label-missing=true" >> "${GITHUB_OUTPUT:-/dev/null}"
+    exit 1
+}
+
 labels="[]"
 if [ "$EVENT" = pull_request ] || [ "$EVENT" = pull_request_target ]; then
     : "${PR:?PR must be the pull request number}"
-    labels=$("$GH" api "repos/$REPOSITORY/pulls/$PR" --jq '[.labels[].name]')
+    labels=$(api "repos/$REPOSITORY/pulls/$PR" --jq '[.labels[].name]') || exit 2
 else
     : "${SHA:?SHA must be the pushed commit}"
-    pr=$("$GH" api "repos/$REPOSITORY/commits/$SHA/pulls" \
-        --jq '[.[] | select(.merged_at != null)][0] // empty | {number, labels: [.labels[].name]}')
+    pr=$(api "repos/$REPOSITORY/commits/$SHA/pulls" \
+        --jq '[.[] | select(.merged_at != null)][0] // empty | {number, labels: [.labels[].name]}') || exit 2
     if [ -z "$pr" ]; then
         if [ -n "$DEFAULT_BUMP" ]; then
             echo "No merged pull request contains $SHA, releasing it as $DEFAULT_BUMP" >&2
@@ -43,8 +75,7 @@ else
             echo "$DEFAULT_BUMP"
             exit 0
         fi
-        echo "::error::No merged pull request contains $SHA, so there is no semver label to release it with" >&2
-        exit 1
+        label_missing "No merged pull request contains $SHA, so there is no semver label to release it with"
     fi
     echo "Releasing pull request #$(jq -r .number <<< "$pr")" >&2
     labels=$(jq -c .labels <<< "$pr")
@@ -56,8 +87,7 @@ if [ "$(wc -w <<< "$bumps")" -ne 1 ]; then
         echo "The pull request has no semver label, releasing it as $DEFAULT_BUMP" >&2
         bumps="$DEFAULT_BUMP"
     else
-        echo "::error::The pull request needs exactly one of the labels major, minor or patch (found: ${bumps:-none})" >&2
-        exit 1
+        label_missing "The pull request needs exactly one of the labels major, minor or patch (found: ${bumps:-none})"
     fi
 fi
 
diff --git a/tests/semver-label.bats b/tests/semver-label.bats
index 9fb8072..730b6a8 100644
--- a/tests/semver-label.bats
+++ b/tests/semver-label.bats
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env bats
 # Tests for scripts/semver-label.sh, with a fake gh. $PR_LABELS are the labels of the pull request,
-# and $MERGED_PR the merged pull request a pushed commit comes from (empty for none).
+# and $MERGED_PR the merged pull request a pushed commit comes from (empty for none). The first
+# $API_FAILURES calls fail the way gh does when GitHub answers with an error page.
 
 load helpers
 
@@ -10,12 +11,18 @@ setup() {
     mkdir -p "$BATS_TEST_TMPDIR/repo" && cd "$BATS_TEST_TMPDIR/repo"
     fake_command gh
     cat > "$BATS_TEST_TMPDIR/gh.sh" <<'EOF'
+calls=$(($(cat "$BATS_TEST_TMPDIR/gh.calls" 2>/dev/null || echo 0) + 1))
+echo "$calls" > "$BATS_TEST_TMPDIR/gh.calls"
+if [ "$calls" -le "${API_FAILURES:-0}" ]; then
+    echo "invalid character '<' looking for beginning of value" >&2
+    exit 1
+fi
 case "$2" in
     repos/owner/repo/pulls/*) echo "${PR_LABELS:-[]}" ;;
     repos/owner/repo/commits/*/pulls) echo "${MERGED_PR:-}" ;;
 esac
 EOF
-    export REPOSITORY=owner/repo GITHUB_OUTPUT="$BATS_TEST_TMPDIR/output"
+    export REPOSITORY=owner/repo GITHUB_OUTPUT="$BATS_TEST_TMPDIR/output" RETRY_DELAY=0
     : > "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
 }
 
@@ -27,10 +34,11 @@ EOF
     grep -q "api repos/owner/repo/pulls/7" "$BATS_TEST_TMPDIR/gh.log"
 }
 
-@test "a pull request without a semver label fails" {
+@test "a pull request without a semver label fails, saying the label is missing" {
     EVENT=pull_request PR=7 PR_LABELS='["documentation"]' run "$SCRIPT"
     [ "$status" -eq 1 ]
     [[ "$output" == *"needs exactly one of the labels major, minor or patch (found: none)"* ]]
+    grep -qx "label-missing=true" "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
 }
 
 @test "a pull request with two semver labels fails" {
@@ -80,3 +88,30 @@ EOF
     EVENT=push SHA=abc DEFAULT_BUMP=huge run "$SCRIPT"
     [ "$status" -eq 1 ]
 }
+
+@test "a failed API call is retried" {
+    EVENT=pull_request PR=7 PR_LABELS='["patch"]' API_FAILURES=2 run "$SCRIPT"
+    [ "$status" -eq 0 ]
+    [ "${lines[-1]}" = patch ]
+    [ "$(grep -c "api repos/owner/repo/pulls/7" "$BATS_TEST_TMPDIR/gh.log")" -eq 3 ]
+    [[ "$output" == *"retrying"* ]]
+}
+
+@test "an API that keeps failing fails without blaming the label" {
+    EVENT=pull_request PR=7 PR_LABELS='["patch"]' API_FAILURES=3 run "$SCRIPT"
+    [ "$status" -eq 2 ]
+    [[ "$output" == *"The GitHub API call failed 3 times"* ]]
+    ! grep -q "label-missing" "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
+}
+
+@test "the merged pull request of a push is read with retries too" {
+    EVENT=push SHA=abc MERGED_PR='{"number":9,"labels":["minor"]}' API_FAILURES=1 run "$SCRIPT"
+    [ "$status" -eq 0 ]
+    [ "${lines[-1]}" = minor ]
+}
+
+@test "a push that no merged pull request carries says the label is missing" {
+    EVENT=push SHA=abc run "$SCRIPT"
+    [ "$status" -eq 1 ]
+    grep -qx "label-missing=true" "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
+}