:information_source: The nil-pointer panic reported here is one of the symptoms enumerated in [`!2877`](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/container-registry/-/merge_requests/2877). Please see that issue for more details. --------------------- The container registry panics with a runtime error: invalid memory address or nil pointer dereference on every request to list tags for a specific repository via the GitLab API endpoint (GET /gitlab/v1/repositories/<namespace>/<repo>/tags/list/). The request is authenticated and authorized successfully, but the handler crashes before returning a response. The connection is dropped with HTTP status 0 and 0 written bytes. Steps to reproduce 1. Have a repository whose tag list is requested via the GitLab-internal registry API 2. Send: GET /gitlab/v1/repositories/<namespace>/<repo>/tags/list/?n=1 User-Agent: GitLab/19.0.0 3. The registry authorizes the request successfully 4. The registry panics — no response is returned to the client Expected behavior The endpoint returns a valid response (200 with tag list, or a graceful 404/500 with a JSON error body). A nil pointer in the handler should never result in a panic that drops the connection. Actual behavior The registry panics with the following error, logged at level=panic, and the HTTP connection is dropped (status 0, written_bytes 0): runtime error: invalid memory address or nil pointer dereference goroutine [running]: github.com/docker/distribution/registry/handlers.(*repositoryTagsHandler).HandleGetTags(...) .../registry/handlers/repositories.go:524 +0x41b Environment GitLab version: 19.0.0 Registry version: v4.40.0-gitlab Go version: go1.25.7 Deployment: Omnibus (production) Relevant log excerpt level=info msg="authorized request" auth_project_paths="[<namespace>/<repo>]" auth_user_name= auth_user_type= correlation_id=<redacted> level=panic msg="runtime error: invalid memory address or nil pointer dereference" stack="... handlers.(*repositoryTagsHandler).HandleGetTags(0xc00007ce00, ...) .../registry/handlers/repositories.go:524 +0x41b ..." {"status":0,"written_bytes":0,"uri":"/gitlab/v1/repositories/<namespace>/<repo>/tags/list/?n=1"}