diff --git a/docs/src/content/docs/getting-started/tutorial.md b/docs/src/content/docs/getting-started/tutorial.md
index b04de6f672..44557882c0 100644
--- a/docs/src/content/docs/getting-started/tutorial.md
+++ b/docs/src/content/docs/getting-started/tutorial.md
@@ -201,7 +201,7 @@ defTool(
     "fetch",
     "Download text from a URL",
     { url: "https://..." },
-    ({ url }) => fetchText(url)
+    ({ url }) => host.fetchText(url)
 )
 
 $`Summarize https://raw.githubusercontent.com/microsoft/genaiscript/main/README.md in 1 sentence.`
diff --git a/docs/src/content/docs/guides/search-and-fetch.mdx b/docs/src/content/docs/guides/search-and-fetch.mdx
index cb9d553211..d723d8f644 100644
--- a/docs/src/content/docs/guides/search-and-fetch.mdx
+++ b/docs/src/content/docs/guides/search-and-fetch.mdx
@@ -30,16 +30,16 @@ You will need a [Bing Web Search API key](/genaiscript/reference/scripts/web-sea
 3. Use the [`webSearch`](/genaiscript/reference/scripts/web-search/) function to 
 search for information about the destination. 
     If you don't have one, then you can search for the web pages manually and use the URLs directly
-    in the call to the `fetchText` function.
+    in the call to the `host.fetchText` function.
     ```js
     const parkinfo = await retrieval.webSearch("mt rainier things to do")   
     ```
 4. `webSearch` returns a list of URLs.  Use [`fetchText`](/genaiscript/reference/scripts/fetch/)
     to fetch the contents of the 1st URL.
     ```js
-    const parktext = await fetchText(parkinfo.webPages[0])
+    const parktext = await host.fetchText(parkinfo.webPages[0])
     ```
-5. `fetchText` returns a lot of formatting HTML tags, etc.
+5. `host.fetchText` returns a lot of formatting HTML tags, etc.
     Use [`runPrompt`](/genaiscript/reference/scripts/inline-prompts/)
     to call the LLM to clean out the tags and just keep the text.
     ```js
diff --git a/docs/src/content/docs/reference/scripts/fetch.md b/docs/src/content/docs/reference/scripts/fetch.md
index 206ba259d2..e84e0fcf62 100644
--- a/docs/src/content/docs/reference/scripts/fetch.md
+++ b/docs/src/content/docs/reference/scripts/fetch.md
@@ -9,12 +9,20 @@ keywords: fetch API, fetchText, HTTP requests, scripts, API key
 The JavaScript `fetch` API is available; but we also provide a helper
 `fetchText` for issuing requests into a friendly format.
 
-## `fetchText`
+## `host.fetch`
 
-Use `fetchText` to issue requests and download text from the internet.
+The `host.fetch` function is a wrapper around the global `fetch` function which adds builtin proxy support and retry capabilities.
+
+```js
+const response = await host.fetch("https://api.example.com", { retries: 3 })
+```
+
+## `host.fetchText`
+
+Use `host.fetchText` to issue requests and download text from the internet.
 
 ```ts
-const { text, file } = await fetchText("https://....")
+const { text, file } = await host.fetchText("https://....")
 if (text) $`And also ${text}`
 
 def("FILE", file)
@@ -23,7 +31,7 @@ def("FILE", file)
 fetchText will also resolve the contents of file in the current workspace if the url is a relative path.
 
 ```ts
-const { file } = await fetchText("README.md")
+const { file } = await host.fetchText("README.md")
 def("README", file)
 ```
 
diff --git a/packages/cli/src/run.ts b/packages/cli/src/run.ts
index 8313919f25..ef8ef54a44 100644
--- a/packages/cli/src/run.ts
+++ b/packages/cli/src/run.ts
@@ -503,7 +503,10 @@ export async function runScript(
     let _ghInfo: GithubConnectionInfo = undefined
     const resolveGitHubInfo = async () => {
         if (!_ghInfo)
-            _ghInfo = await githubParseEnv(process.env, { issue: pullRequest })
+            _ghInfo = await githubParseEnv(process.env, {
+                issue: pullRequest,
+                resolveIssue: true,
+            })
         return _ghInfo
     }
     let adoInfo: AzureDevOpsEnv = undefined
diff --git a/packages/core/src/fetch.ts b/packages/core/src/fetch.ts
index c45aea975d..5ff5810e61 100644
--- a/packages/core/src/fetch.ts
+++ b/packages/core/src/fetch.ts
@@ -42,7 +42,13 @@ export async function createFetch(
     } = options || {}
 
     // We create a proxy based on Node.js environment variables.
-    const proxy = process.env.HTTPS_PROXY || process.env.HTTP_PROXY || process.env.https_proxy || process.env.http_proxy;
+    const proxy =
+        process.env.GENAISCRIPT_HTTPS_PROXY ||
+        process.env.GENAISCRIPT_HTTP_PROXY ||
+        process.env.HTTPS_PROXY ||
+        process.env.HTTP_PROXY ||
+        process.env.https_proxy ||
+        process.env.http_proxy
     const agent = proxy ? new HttpsProxyAgent(proxy) : null
 
     // We enrich crossFetch with the proxy.
@@ -89,6 +95,22 @@ export async function createFetch(
     return fetchRetry
 }
 
+export async function fetch(
+    input: string | URL | globalThis.Request,
+    options?: FetchOptions & TraceOptions
+): Promise<Response> {
+    const { retryOn, retries, retryDelay, maxDelay, trace, ...rest } =
+        options || {}
+    const f = await createFetch({
+        retryOn,
+        retries,
+        retryDelay,
+        maxDelay,
+        trace,
+    })
+    return f(input, rest)
+}
+
 /**
  * Fetches text content from a URL or file.
  *
@@ -101,8 +123,10 @@ export async function createFetch(
  */
 export async function fetchText(
     urlOrFile: string | WorkspaceFile,
-    fetchOptions?: FetchTextOptions
+    fetchOptions?: FetchTextOptions & TraceOptions
 ) {
+    const { retries, retryDelay, retryOn, maxDelay, trace, ...rest } =
+        fetchOptions || {}
     if (typeof urlOrFile === "string") {
         urlOrFile = {
             filename: urlOrFile,
@@ -114,8 +138,14 @@ export async function fetchText(
     let status = 404
     let text: string
     if (/^https?:\/\//i.test(url)) {
-        const fetch = await createFetch()
-        const resp = await fetch(url, fetchOptions)
+        const f = await createFetch({
+            retries,
+            retryDelay,
+            retryOn,
+            maxDelay,
+            trace,
+        })
+        const resp = await f(url, rest)
         ok = resp.ok
         status = resp.status
         if (ok) text = await resp.text()
diff --git a/packages/core/src/github.ts b/packages/core/src/github.ts
index 4a1b54de14..915f23627d 100644
--- a/packages/core/src/github.ts
+++ b/packages/core/src/github.ts
@@ -86,7 +86,9 @@ async function githubGetPullRequestNumber() {
 
 export async function githubParseEnv(
     env: Record<string, string>,
-    options?: { issue?: number } & Partial<Pick<GithubConnectionInfo, "owner" | "repo">>
+    options?: { issue?: number; resolveIssue?: boolean } & Partial<
+        Pick<GithubConnectionInfo, "owner" | "repo">
+    >
 ): Promise<GithubConnectionInfo> {
     const res = githubFromEnv(env)
     try {
@@ -110,8 +112,9 @@ export async function githubParseEnv(
             res.repo = repo
             res.owner = owner.login
             res.repository = res.owner + "/" + res.repo
-            if (isNaN(res.issue)) res.issue = await githubGetPullRequestNumber()
         }
+        if (isNaN(res.issue) && options?.resolveIssue)
+            res.issue = await githubGetPullRequestNumber()
     } catch (e) {}
     return Object.freeze(res)
 }
diff --git a/packages/core/src/promptcontext.ts b/packages/core/src/promptcontext.ts
index 4634391e24..8affe362c6 100644
--- a/packages/core/src/promptcontext.ts
+++ b/packages/core/src/promptcontext.ts
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ import { HTMLEscape } from "./html"
 import { hash } from "./crypto"
 import { resolveModelConnectionInfo } from "./models"
 import { DOCS_WEB_SEARCH_URL } from "./constants"
+import { fetch, fetchText } from "./fetch"
 
 /**
  * Creates a prompt context for the given project, variables, trace, options, and model.
@@ -212,6 +213,8 @@ export async function createPromptContext(
 
     // Define the host for executing commands, browsing, and other operations
     const promptHost: PromptHost = Object.freeze<PromptHost>({
+        fetch: (url, options) => fetch(url, {...(options || {}), trace }),
+        fetchText: (url, options) => fetchText(url, {...(options || {}), trace }),
         resolveLanguageModel: async (modelId) => {
             const { configuration } = await resolveModelConnectionInfo(
                 { model: modelId },
diff --git a/packages/core/src/types/prompt_template.d.ts b/packages/core/src/types/prompt_template.d.ts
index 06076f590e..de71bf8549 100644
--- a/packages/core/src/types/prompt_template.d.ts
+++ b/packages/core/src/types/prompt_template.d.ts
@@ -2237,8 +2237,6 @@ interface Retrieval {
     ): Promise<WorkspaceFile[]>
 }
 
-type FetchTextOptions = Omit<RequestInit, "body" | "signal" | "window">
-
 interface DataFilter {
     /**
      * The keys to select from the object.
@@ -3242,11 +3240,43 @@ interface ContentSafetyHost {
     contentSafety(id?: ContentSafetyProvider): Promise<ContentSafety>
 }
 
+type FetchOptions = RequestInit & {
+    retryOn?: number[] // HTTP status codes to retry on
+    retries?: number // Number of retry attempts
+    retryDelay?: number // Initial delay between retries
+    maxDelay?: number // Maximum delay between retries
+}
+
+type FetchTextOptions = Omit<FetchOptions, "body" | "signal" | "window">
+
 interface PromptHost
     extends ShellHost,
         UserInterfaceHost,
         LanguageModelHost,
         ContentSafetyHost {
+    /**
+     * A fetch wrapper with proxy, retry and timeout handling.
+     */
+    fetch(
+        input: string | URL | globalThis.Request,
+        init?: FetchOptions
+    ): Promise<Response>
+
+    /**
+     * A function that fetches text from a URL or a file
+     * @param url
+     * @param options
+     */
+    fetchText(
+        url: string | WorkspaceFile,
+        options?: FetchTextOptions
+    ): Promise<{
+        ok: boolean
+        status: number
+        text?: string
+        file?: WorkspaceFile
+    }>
+
     /**
      * Opens a in-memory key-value cache for the given cache name. Entries are dropped when the cache grows too large.
      * @param cacheName
diff --git a/packages/core/src/types/prompt_type.d.ts b/packages/core/src/types/prompt_type.d.ts
index 8a9fc2e566..cc9d44b14e 100644
--- a/packages/core/src/types/prompt_type.d.ts
+++ b/packages/core/src/types/prompt_type.d.ts
@@ -222,8 +222,7 @@ declare var git: Git
 declare var tokenizers: Tokenizers
 
 /**
- * Fetches a given URL and returns the response.
- * @param url
+ * @deprecated use `host.fetchText` instead
  */
 declare function fetchText(
     url: string | WorkspaceFile,
diff --git a/packages/sample/genaisrc/fetch.genai.js b/packages/sample/genaisrc/fetch.genai.mjs
similarity index 50%
rename from packages/sample/genaisrc/fetch.genai.js
rename to packages/sample/genaisrc/fetch.genai.mjs
index ded696b053..926621d7c1 100644
--- a/packages/sample/genaisrc/fetch.genai.js
+++ b/packages/sample/genaisrc/fetch.genai.mjs
@@ -8,12 +8,17 @@ script({
 /**
  * @type {any}
  */
-const res = await fetch(
+const res = await host.fetch(
     "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/microsoft/genaiscript/main/package.json",
     { method: "GET" }
 )
 const pkg = await res.json()
 
+const { file: readme } = await host.fetchText(
+    "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/microsoft/genaiscript/refs/heads/main/README.md"
+)
+
 def("PACKAGE", YAML.stringify(pkg))
+def("README", readme)
 
-$`Explain the purpose of the product described in PACKAGE. Mention its name.`
+$`Explain the purpose of the product described in PACKAG and README. Mention its name.`
diff --git a/packages/sample/genaisrc/lza_review.genai.js b/packages/sample/genaisrc/lza_review.genai.js
index 31ecbf05ea..c2f1f28d7f 100644
--- a/packages/sample/genaisrc/lza_review.genai.js
+++ b/packages/sample/genaisrc/lza_review.genai.js
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ for (const link of biceps) {
     const [, , p] = dependency
     if (p.includes("shared")) continue // ignore those shared files
     const dp = path.join(dirname, p)
-    const resp = await fetchText(dp)
+    const resp = await host.fetchText(dp)
     def("DEPS", resp.file, { lineNumbers: true })
   }
 }
diff --git a/slides/genaisrc/style-tester.genai.js b/packages/sample/genaisrc/style-tester.genai.mjs
similarity index 100%
rename from slides/genaisrc/style-tester.genai.js
rename to packages/sample/genaisrc/style-tester.genai.mjs
diff --git a/packages/vscode/tutorial.md b/packages/vscode/tutorial.md
index b04de6f672..44557882c0 100644
--- a/packages/vscode/tutorial.md
+++ b/packages/vscode/tutorial.md
@@ -201,7 +201,7 @@ defTool(
     "fetch",
     "Download text from a URL",
     { url: "https://..." },
-    ({ url }) => fetchText(url)
+    ({ url }) => host.fetchText(url)
 )
 
 $`Summarize https://raw.githubusercontent.com/microsoft/genaiscript/main/README.md in 1 sentence.`
diff --git a/slides/genaisrc/.gitattributes b/slides/genaisrc/.gitattributes
deleted file mode 100644
index b89350c92b..0000000000
--- a/slides/genaisrc/.gitattributes
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-genaiscript.d.ts -diff merge=ours linguist-generated
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/slides/genaisrc/.gitignore b/slides/genaisrc/.gitignore
deleted file mode 100644
index 6641d96c08..0000000000
--- a/slides/genaisrc/.gitignore
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,4 +0,0 @@
-# auto-generated
-genaiscript.d.ts
-tsconfig.json
-jsconfig.json
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/slides/genaisrc/jsconfig.json b/slides/genaisrc/jsconfig.json
deleted file mode 100644
index 4c21c58ce6..0000000000
--- a/slides/genaisrc/jsconfig.json
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,17 +0,0 @@
-{
-    "compilerOptions": {
-        "lib": [
-            "ES2022"
-        ],
-        "target": "ES2022",
-        "module": "ES2022",
-        "moduleDetection": "force",
-        "checkJs": true,
-        "allowJs": true,
-        "skipLibCheck": true
-    },
-    "include": [
-        "*.js",
-        "./genaiscript.d.ts"
-    ]
-}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/slides/genaisrc/tsconfig.json b/slides/genaisrc/tsconfig.json
deleted file mode 100644
index 510eefe8f9..0000000000
--- a/slides/genaisrc/tsconfig.json
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,21 +0,0 @@
-{
-    "compilerOptions": {
-        "lib": [
-            "ES2022"
-        ],
-        "target": "ES2023",
-        "module": "NodeNext",
-        "moduleDetection": "force",
-        "moduleResolution": "nodenext",
-        "checkJs": true,
-        "allowJs": true,
-        "skipLibCheck": true,
-        "noEmit": true,
-        "allowImportingTsExtensions": true
-    },
-    "include": [
-        "*.mjs",
-        "*.mts",
-        "./genaiscript.d.ts"
-    ]
-}
\ No newline at end of file