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Error Handling

Learn how to handle errors and interpret error responses from the Memphora API.

Error Response Format

All error responses follow a consistent format:

{
  "error": "Error type",
  "detail": "Human-readable error message",
  "request_id": "unique-request-id",
  "details": [
    {
      "field": "field_name",
      "message": "Specific validation error"
    }
  ]
}

error: High-level error category

detail: Human-readable error message

request_id: Unique identifier for tracking the request (useful for support)

details: Array of specific validation errors (for 400/422 errors)

HTTP Status Codes

Best Practices

  • Always check the status code before processing the response body
  • Log the request_id for debugging and support requests
  • Handle rate limits by implementing exponential backoff and respecting retry_after headers
  • Validate input before sending requests to avoid 400/422 errors
  • Implement retry logic for transient errors (500, 503) with exponential backoff
  • Show user-friendly messages based on error details, not raw error codes

Example: Error Handling in Python

import requests
from requests.exceptions import RequestException

def handle_api_call(url, headers, data=None):
    try:
        response = requests.post(url, json=data, headers=headers)
        
        # Check for errors
        if response.status_code == 400:
            error_data = response.json()
            print(f"Bad Request: {error_data.get('detail')}")
            if 'details' in error_data:
                for detail in error_data['details']:
                    print(f"  - {detail['field']}: {detail['message']}")
            return None
            
        elif response.status_code == 401:
            print("Authentication failed. Check your API key.")
            return None
            
        elif response.status_code == 429:
            retry_after = response.headers.get('Retry-After', 60)
            print(f"Rate limit exceeded. Retry after {retry_after} seconds.")
            return None
            
        elif response.status_code >= 500:
            error_data = response.json()
            request_id = error_data.get('request_id')
            print(f"Server error (request_id: {request_id}). Please try again later.")
            return None
            
        # Success
        response.raise_for_status()
        return response.json()
        
    except RequestException as e:
        print(f"Network error: {e}")
        return None
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