Allow publishing if availability check fails (#490)

source/cli.js

@@ -91,11 +91,11 @@ updateNotifier({pkg: cli.pkg}).notify();
 		...cli.flags
 	};
 
-	const isAvailable = flags.publish ? await isPackageNameAvailable(pkg) : false;
+	const availability = await isPackageNameAvailable(pkg);
 
 	const version = cli.input.length > 0 ? cli.input[0] : false;
 
-	const options = await ui({...flags, exists: !isAvailable, version}, pkg);
+	const options = await ui({...flags, availability, version}, pkg);
 
 	if (!options.confirm) {
 		process.exit(0);

source/npm/util.js

@@ -84,13 +84,24 @@ exports.prereleaseTags = async packageName => {
 
 exports.isPackageNameAvailable = async pkg => {
 	const args = [pkg.name];
+	const availability = {
+		isAvailable: false,
+		isUnknown: false
+	};
+
 	if (exports.isExternalRegistry(pkg)) {
 		args.push({
 			registryUrl: pkg.publishConfig.registry
 		});
 	}
 
-	return npmName(...args);
+	try {
+		availability.isAvailable = await npmName(...args) || false;
+	} catch {
+		availability.isUnknown = true;
+	}
+
+	return availability;
 };
 
 exports.isExternalRegistry = pkg => typeof pkg.publishConfig === 'object' && typeof pkg.publishConfig.registry === 'string';

source/ui.js

@@ -137,7 +137,7 @@ module.exports = async (options, pkg) => {
 		{
 			type: 'confirm',
 			name: 'publishScoped',
-			when: isScoped(pkg.name) && !options.exists && options.publish && !pkg.private,
+			when: isScoped(pkg.name) && !options.availability.isAvailable && !options.availability.isUnknown && options.publish && !pkg.private,
 			message: `This scoped repo ${chalk.bold.magenta(pkg.name)} hasn't been published. Do you want to publish it publicly?`,
 			default: false
 		}
@@ -170,6 +170,23 @@ module.exports = async (options, pkg) => {
 		}
 	}
 
+	if (options.availability.isUnknown) {
+		const answers = await inquirer.prompt([{
+			type: 'confirm',
+			name: 'confirm',
+			when: isScoped(pkg.name) && options.publish && !pkg.private,
+			message: `Failed to check availability of scoped repo name ${chalk.bold.magenta(pkg.name)}. Do you want to try and publish it anyway?`,
+			default: false
+		}]);
+
+		if (!answers.confirm) {
+			return {
+				...options,
+				...answers
+			};
+		}
+	}
+
 	const answers = await inquirer.prompt(prompts);
 
 	return {