diff --git a/crawler/lib/connections/github.js b/crawler/lib/connections/github.js
index ec6f730505d..21ca778d5be 100644
--- a/crawler/lib/connections/github.js
+++ b/crawler/lib/connections/github.js
@@ -1,8 +1,9 @@
 const axios = require('axios');
+const axiosRetryAfter = require('axios-retry-after');
 
 const { GITHUB_ACTOR: githubActor, GITHUB_TOKEN: githubToken } = process.env;
 
-module.exports = axios.create({
+const axiosClient = axios.create({
     baseURL: 'https://api.github.com',
     headers: {
         Accept: 'application/vnd.github.mercy-preview+json'
@@ -11,3 +12,21 @@ module.exports = axios.create({
         ? { username: githubActor, password: githubToken }
         : null
 });
+
+axiosClient.interceptors.response.use(null, axiosRetryAfter(axiosClient, {
+    // GitHub responds with 403 instead of 429 when soft rate limit is hit
+    isRetryable (error) {
+        return (
+            error.response && error.response.status === 403 &&
+            error.response.headers['retry-after']
+        );
+    },
+
+    wait (error) {
+        return new Promise(
+            resolve => setTimeout(resolve, error.response.headers['retry-after'] * 1000)
+        );
+    }
+}));
+
+module.exports = axiosClient;
diff --git a/crawler/package-lock.json b/crawler/package-lock.json
index a79df07864f..db097218a06 100644
--- a/crawler/package-lock.json
+++ b/crawler/package-lock.json
@@ -1572,8 +1572,7 @@
     "asynckit": {
       "version": "0.4.0",
       "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/asynckit/-/asynckit-0.4.0.tgz",
-      "integrity": "sha1-x57Zf380y48robyXkLzDZkdLS3k=",
-      "dev": true
+      "integrity": "sha1-x57Zf380y48robyXkLzDZkdLS3k="
     },
     "atob": {
       "version": "2.1.2",
@@ -1593,13 +1592,37 @@
       "dev": true
     },
     "axios": {
-      "version": "0.19.2",
-      "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/axios/-/axios-0.19.2.tgz",
-      "integrity": "sha512-fjgm5MvRHLhx+osE2xoekY70AhARk3a6hkN+3Io1jc00jtquGvxYlKlsFUhmUET0V5te6CcZI7lcv2Ym61mjHA==",
+      "version": "1.2.1",
+      "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/axios/-/axios-1.2.1.tgz",
+      "integrity": "sha512-I88cFiGu9ryt/tfVEi4kX2SITsvDddTajXTOFmt2uK1ZVA8LytjtdeyefdQWEf5PU8w+4SSJDoYnggflB5tW4A==",
       "requires": {
-        "follow-redirects": "1.5.10"
+        "follow-redirects": "^1.15.0",
+        "form-data": "^4.0.0",
+        "proxy-from-env": "^1.1.0"
+      },
+      "dependencies": {
+        "follow-redirects": {
+          "version": "1.15.2",
+          "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/follow-redirects/-/follow-redirects-1.15.2.tgz",
+          "integrity": "sha512-VQLG33o04KaQ8uYi2tVNbdrWp1QWxNNea+nmIB4EVM28v0hmP17z7aG1+wAkNzVq4KeXTq3221ye5qTJP91JwA=="
+        },
+        "form-data": {
+          "version": "4.0.0",
+          "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/form-data/-/form-data-4.0.0.tgz",
+          "integrity": "sha512-ETEklSGi5t0QMZuiXoA/Q6vcnxcLQP5vdugSpuAyi6SVGi2clPPp+xgEhuMaHC+zGgn31Kd235W35f7Hykkaww==",
+          "requires": {
+            "asynckit": "^0.4.0",
+            "combined-stream": "^1.0.8",
+            "mime-types": "^2.1.12"
+          }
+        }
       }
     },
+    "axios-retry-after": {
+      "version": "2.0.0",
+      "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/axios-retry-after/-/axios-retry-after-2.0.0.tgz",
+      "integrity": "sha512-tSB1DEF1bSwXmRNyPcopFsiHAF+PWVq5w2mAK7J0bTltn8x2UnfoSJzTVXPySt/WdrbQL4ES5AXtG9i016+CaA=="
+    },
     "babel-jest": {
       "version": "25.5.1",
       "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/babel-jest/-/babel-jest-25.5.1.tgz",
@@ -2128,7 +2151,6 @@
       "version": "1.0.8",
       "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/combined-stream/-/combined-stream-1.0.8.tgz",
       "integrity": "sha512-FQN4MRfuJeHf7cBbBMJFXhKSDq+2kAArBlmRBvcvFE5BB1HZKXtSFASDhdlz9zOYwxh8lDdnvmMOe/+5cdoEdg==",
-      "dev": true,
       "requires": {
         "delayed-stream": "~1.0.0"
       }
@@ -2355,8 +2377,7 @@
     "delayed-stream": {
       "version": "1.0.0",
       "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/delayed-stream/-/delayed-stream-1.0.0.tgz",
-      "integrity": "sha1-3zrhmayt+31ECqrgsp4icrJOxhk=",
-      "dev": true
+      "integrity": "sha1-3zrhmayt+31ECqrgsp4icrJOxhk="
     },
     "delegates": {
       "version": "1.0.0",
@@ -3905,6 +3926,14 @@
           "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/async/-/async-1.0.0.tgz",
           "integrity": "sha1-+PwEyjoTeErenhZBr5hXjPvWR6k="
         },
+        "axios": {
+          "version": "0.19.2",
+          "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/axios/-/axios-0.19.2.tgz",
+          "integrity": "sha512-fjgm5MvRHLhx+osE2xoekY70AhARk3a6hkN+3Io1jc00jtquGvxYlKlsFUhmUET0V5te6CcZI7lcv2Ym61mjHA==",
+          "requires": {
+            "follow-redirects": "1.5.10"
+          }
+        },
         "camelcase": {
           "version": "4.1.0",
           "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/camelcase/-/camelcase-4.1.0.tgz",
@@ -7674,6 +7703,11 @@
       "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/protocols/-/protocols-1.4.7.tgz",
       "integrity": "sha512-Fx65lf9/YDn3hUX08XUc0J8rSux36rEsyiv21ZGUC1mOyeM3lTRpZLcrm8aAolzS4itwVfm7TAPyxC2E5zd6xg=="
     },
+    "proxy-from-env": {
+      "version": "1.1.0",
+      "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/proxy-from-env/-/proxy-from-env-1.1.0.tgz",
+      "integrity": "sha512-D+zkORCbA9f1tdWRK0RaCR3GPv50cMxcrz4X8k5LTSUD1Dkw47mKJEZQNunItRTkWwgtaUSo1RVFRIG9ZXiFYg=="
+    },
     "psl": {
       "version": "1.8.0",
       "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/psl/-/psl-1.8.0.tgz",
diff --git a/crawler/package.json b/crawler/package.json
index e4b41f400a4..011fdb0c217 100644
--- a/crawler/package.json
+++ b/crawler/package.json
@@ -5,7 +5,8 @@
   "author": "Chris Alfano <chris@jarv.us>",
   "license": "Apache-2.0",
   "dependencies": {
-    "axios": "^0.19.2",
+    "axios": "^1.2.1",
+    "axios-retry-after": "^2.0.0",
     "csv-parser": "^2.3.3",
     "gitsheets": "^0.2.2",
     "parse-link-header": "^1.0.1",
diff --git a/docs/projects/crawler/contributing/crawler.md b/docs/projects/crawler/contributing/crawler.md
index 1ea52f98678..7a389bb4366 100644
--- a/docs/projects/crawler/contributing/crawler.md
+++ b/docs/projects/crawler/contributing/crawler.md
@@ -4,6 +4,19 @@ The Crawler is built with Node.js and development is primarily supported for [Vi
 
 ## After Cloning or Pulling
 
+Make sure you're using node 14:
+
+```bash
+node --version
+```
+
+On Mac with node installed via Homebrew, you can switch your current shell to node 14:
+
+```bash
+brew install node@14
+export PATH="/usr/local/opt/node@14/bin:$PATH"
+```
+
 Install node modules:
 
 ```bash