Outbound HTTPS API calls to OpenAI (api.openai.com) are being

systematically blocked, causing our production application to fail and fall

back to emergency mode.

Technical Details

Service Information:

- Project: graceful-reverence/production

- Runtime: Python 3.11+ FastAPI application

- Region: [Railway auto-assigned]

- Issue: All outbound HTTPS calls to api.openai.com fail with connection

errors

Evidence of Blocking:

1. Local Testing: OpenAI API calls work perfectly from local environment

2. API Key Validation: API key tested and confirmed working on

platform.openai.com

3. Network Pattern: All outbound calls to api.openai.com timeout after

retry attempts

4. Systematic Failure: 100% failure rate on Railway, 100% success rate

locally

Error Pattern:

INFO:openai._base_client:Retrying request to /chat/completions in 0.420350

seconds

INFO:openai._base_client:Retrying request to /chat/completions in 0.775623

seconds

INFO:openai._base_client:Retrying request to /chat/completions in 1.935868

seconds

ERROR:agents.core.single_ai_call_engine:AI call failed: Connection error.

Application Impact:

- Production service forced into emergency fallback mode

- Educational AI responses degraded to static templates

- User experience severely compromised

Configuration Verified

Environment variables correctly set API key valid and has sufficient

credits Client configuration uses direct connection (no proxy) Timeout

settings: 15s connect, 60s read Application responds to all other

endpoints

Target API Endpoints
- Primary: https://api.openai.com/v1/chat/completions

- Protocol: HTTPS (port 443)

- Authentication: Bearer token in Authorization header

- Usage: Educational AI tutor responses

Request for Resolution

We need outbound HTTPS access to api.openai.com for our educational

platform to function. This appears to be a network-level restriction on

Railway's infrastructure.

Urgency

High - Production service degraded for educational users