LinkedIn missing or deprecated version header errors: fail in CI

LinkedIn returns an error response when the Linkedin-Version header is missing or when it names a deprecated version such as 202401. Catch both in CI by asserting that your configured version is a six-digit YYYYMM value that is not past its sunset date.

Treat the error as a configuration fault, not a transient one: retrying the same request with the same header cannot succeed.

What should a version check cover?

Use the dated rules on LinkedIn's pages.

How do I write the check?

Keep a small set of sunset dates from LinkedIn's migration table in config, and compare today's date against it. The sample fails on an unset, malformed or expired version.

import datetime
import os

SUNSET = {
    "202510": datetime.date(2026, 10, 15),
    "202511": datetime.date(2026, 11, 16),
    "202601": datetime.date(2027, 1, 15),
}


def check(version: str, today: datetime.date) -> None:
    if len(version) != 6 or not version.isdigit():
        raise SystemExit("LINKEDIN_VERSION must be YYYYMM")
    end = SUNSET.get(version)
    if end and today >= end:
        raise SystemExit(f"{version} sunset on {end}")


if __name__ == "__main__":
    check(os.environ.get("LINKEDIN_VERSION", "202601"), datetime.date.today())
    print("version ok")

Why does this matter for a render pipeline?

A post that fails on a header error should never trigger a second render. Sume's idempotent submit returns the original job for a repeated Idempotency-Key, and Errors and rate limits says not to retry unsafe submits without one. Fix the header, then post the stored result.