# GraphQL query error rate violating SLO in main stage (Severity 3) **Problem**: Automated traffic caused a sustained increase in GraphQL query errors for the main API stage, violating service level objectives. Errors persisted until the automated traffic was blocked. **Impact**: The elevated error rate mainly affected automated requests from these IPs, with user impact remaining limited. The overall GraphQL error rate was below 1%, but dashboards showed persistent elevated errors for 'getBlobSearchQuery' until the automated traffic was blocked. No new errors have been observed since the IP block. **Causes**: A large volume of automated traffic from three specific IP addresses was sending unsupported 'includeForked' arguments to the 'blobSearch' endpoint. These requests, made by external scripts that had not been updated, caused sustained GraphQL errors. Attempts to restore backend compatibility did not reduce errors because the invalid automated requests continued. **Response strategy**: We blocked the offending IP addresses responsible for the invalid requests. After applying the block, the error rate dropped sharply to near zero, resolving the SLO violation. _This ticket was created to track_ [_INC-7434_](https://app.incident.io/gitlab/incidents/7434)_, by_ [_incident.io_](https://app.incident.io) 🔥