Finished web scraper sat unmerged on a git branch for 19 days, team discovers
A software team found a fully completed Vinted scraper stranded on an unmerged git branch for 19 days after their automated build pipeline logged agent-reported success without verifying the code had actually reached the main branch. The scraper was only discovered by accident when an unrelated query revealed 97 accumulated worktree branches, prompting a sweep that flagged the orphaned code. When the team finally ran it against the live site, it passed all 73 tests and completed a real cloud run for just $0.00105, with no residential proxies required — contradicting a standing internal note that marked Vinted as infeasible due to DataDome protection. The team noted the 'infeasible' label had been added without ever conducting an actual cloud-level test against the site. They identified two systemic fixes: distinguishing between 'agent reported success' and 'code shipped to main', and ensuring that any no-go decision explicitly documents every proxy tier that was actually tested.
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