diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index e95f070..65c8b92 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -362,7 +362,7 @@ Any host that can reach `api.github.com` will do, and more than one is better.
 Install a release, which puts `github-cron-trigger` on PATH:
 
 ```sh
-pip install "github-cron-trigger @ git+https://github.com/curlewlabs-com/github-cron-trigger@v0.2.1"
+pip install "github-cron-trigger @ git+https://github.com/curlewlabs-com/github-cron-trigger@v0.2.2"
 ```
 
 Or check out a release tag and run it as `PYTHONPATH=src python3 -m
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index bc054a0..cccacf8 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ build-backend = "flit_core.buildapi"
 
 [project]
 name = "github-cron-trigger"
-version = "0.2.1"
+version = "0.2.2"
 description = "Run each scheduled slot of a GitHub Actions workflow on time and exactly once, with GitHub's schedule as the backstop."
 readme = "README.md"
 license = "MIT"
diff --git a/src/github_cron_trigger/github.py b/src/github_cron_trigger/github.py
index e4eca82..9e4506a 100644
--- a/src/github_cron_trigger/github.py
+++ b/src/github_cron_trigger/github.py
@@ -28,8 +28,15 @@
     r"^gh: (?P<message>.*) \(HTTP (?P<status>\d{3})\)$", re.MULTILINE
 )
 
-# The failure that carries no status: `gh` never reached the host.
+# The failures that carry no status, because `gh` got no answer. A failed name
+# lookup prints the first. Any other request left unanswered - a dial or TLS
+# handshake that timed out, a reset connection, a proxy that refused - prints
+# Go's error for it, which opens with the method and the quoted URL. The shape
+# is matched rather than a list of causes, which Go words many ways; a cause no
+# retry clears, such as a refused certificate, costs only the ladder's waits
+# before the same failure.
 _CONNECT_FAILURE = "error connecting to "
+_NO_ANSWER = re.compile(r'^(?:Get|Head|Post|Put|Patch|Delete) "[^"]*": ')
 
 # GitHub answers a secondary rate limit with a 403 whose message says so. Every
 # other 403 is a refusal, so the message is the only way to tell them apart.
@@ -55,7 +62,8 @@ def classify(stderr: str) -> tuple[int | None, str]:
     """The HTTP status and message of a failed `gh api` call, from its stderr.
 
     The status is None when `gh` reported no HTTP exchange (a connection
-    failure); the message is then the whole stderr.
+    failure, or a failure before any request); the message is then the whole
+    stderr.
     """
     text = stderr.strip()
     match = _GH_API_ERROR.search(text)
@@ -67,7 +75,7 @@ def classify(stderr: str) -> tuple[int | None, str]:
 def transient(status: int | None, message: str) -> bool:
     """Whether a failure is worth retrying: the API was busy or unreachable."""
     if status is None:
-        return message.startswith(_CONNECT_FAILURE)
+        return message.startswith(_CONNECT_FAILURE) or bool(_NO_ANSWER.match(message))
     if status >= 500 or status == 429:
         return True
     return status == 403 and _SECONDARY_RATE_LIMIT in message.lower()
diff --git a/tests/test_steps.py b/tests/test_steps.py
index ba8898a..3b86de9 100644
--- a/tests/test_steps.py
+++ b/tests/test_steps.py
@@ -511,8 +511,10 @@ class GhFailureClassificationTest(unittest.TestCase):
     on a transient error turns a gateway blip into a red run and, for a record
     step, a slot the other delivery then does again. The 404 and 422 lines are
     `gh api` output captured live against a repository's refs API; the
-    secondary-rate-limit and connection lines are the forms GitHub and `gh`
-    print for those failures.
+    secondary-rate-limit and name-lookup lines are the forms GitHub and `gh`
+    print for those failures. The unanswered-request lines are `gh api` output
+    too: the timeouts from a clock host's log, with the repository renamed, and
+    the proxy line from pointing HTTPS_PROXY at a closed port.
     """
 
     def test_refusals_are_not_retried(self) -> None:
@@ -521,6 +523,9 @@ def test_refusals_are_not_retried(self) -> None:
             ("gh: Reference already exists (HTTP 422)", 422),
             ("gh: Reference does not exist (HTTP 422)", 422),
             ("gh: Resource not accessible by integration (HTTP 403)", 403),
+            # No status, but no network either: a call gh refused before
+            # sending must not read as an unanswered one.
+            ("unknown flag: --paginatee\n\nUsage:  gh api <endpoint> [flags]", None),
         ):
             with self.subTest(stderr=stderr):
                 self.assertEqual(classify(stderr)[0], status)
@@ -535,6 +540,28 @@ def test_busy_and_unreachable_are_retried(self) -> None:
                 " minutes before you try again. (HTTP 403)"
             ),
             "error connecting to api.github.com\ncheck your internet connection",
+            # Requests gh sent and got no answer to. Unretried, one dropped
+            # connection on the mark read cost a whole tick, since a tick
+            # with no marks sends nothing.
+            (
+                'Get "https://api.github.com/repos/owner/name/git/matching-refs/'
+                'github-cron-trigger-clock/?per_page=100": dial tcp'
+                " 20.29.134.17:443: i/o timeout"
+            ),
+            (
+                'Get "https://api.github.com/repos/owner/name/git/matching-refs/'
+                'github-cron-trigger-clock/?per_page=100": net/http: TLS'
+                " handshake timeout"
+            ),
+            (
+                'Delete "https://api.github.com/repos/owner/name/git/refs/'
+                'github-cron-trigger-clock/backup.yml/0_1_x_x_x/20260928T0100Z":'
+                " dial tcp 20.29.134.17:443: i/o timeout"
+            ),
+            (
+                'Post "https://api.github.com/graphql": proxyconnect tcp: dial tcp'
+                " 127.0.0.1:9: connect: connection refused"
+            ),
         ):
             with self.subTest(stderr=stderr):
                 self.assertTrue(transient(*classify(stderr)))