diff --git a/.changeset/great-eyes-rest.md b/.changeset/great-eyes-rest.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..409937be6075
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/great-eyes-rest.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+'astro': patch
+---
+
+better error handling there whenever we don't get a normal 200 response
diff --git a/packages/astro/src/cli/add/index.ts b/packages/astro/src/cli/add/index.ts
index a6c4727ba92e..de27c368e0d8 100644
--- a/packages/astro/src/cli/add/index.ts
+++ b/packages/astro/src/cli/add/index.ts
@@ -725,10 +725,10 @@ async function fetchPackageJson(
 	const packageName = `${scope ? `${scope}/` : ''}${name}`;
 	const registry = await getRegistry();
 	const res = await fetch(`${registry}/${packageName}/${tag}`);
-	if (res.status === 404) {
-		return new Error();
-	} else {
+	if (res.status >= 200 && res.status < 300) {
 		return await res.json();
+	} else {
+		return new Error();
 	}
 }