Error Handling

Handle API errors gracefully with consistent error responses and proper retry logic.

Overview

RenderDoc API uses conventional HTTP response codes and returns structured error responses in JSON format. All errors follow a consistent schema to make error handling predictable and straightforward.

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Error Response Format

All errors return this consistent structure:

{
  "statusCode": 400,
  "code": "ERR_VALID_001",
  "message": "Validation failed",
  "timestamp": "2025-11-07T10:30:00.000Z",
  "path": "/api/v1/documents/generate",
  "relatedInfo": {
    "errors": [
      {
        "field": "templateId",
        "message": "Template ID is required"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Response Fields

Field	Type	Description
statusCode	number	HTTP status code
code	string	Error code (e.g., ERR_VALID_001)
message	string	Human-readable error message
timestamp	string	ISO 8601 timestamp
path	string	API endpoint that generated error
relatedInfo	object	Additional context (optional)

---

HTTP Status Codes

Success Codes (2xx)

Code	Description
200 OK	Request successful
201 Created	Resource created successfully
204 No Content	Request successful, no content to return

Client Error Codes (4xx)

Code	Description	When to Expect
400 Bad Request	Invalid request data	Validation errors, malformed JSON
401 Unauthorized	Authentication required	Missing or invalid API key
403 Forbidden	Insufficient permissions	API key lacks required permission
404 Not Found	Resource doesn't exist	Template, document, or endpoint not found
409 Conflict	Resource conflict	Duplicate resource, version mismatch
422 Unprocessable Entity	Valid syntax but semantic errors	Business logic violation
429 Too Many Requests	Rate limit exceeded	Too many requests in time window

Server Error Codes (5xx)

Code	Description	What to Do
500 Internal Server Error	Unexpected server error	Retry with exponential backoff
502 Bad Gateway	Upstream service error	Retry after delay
503 Service Unavailable	Service temporarily down	Check status page, retry later
504 Gateway Timeout	Request timeout	Retry with longer timeout

---

Error Codes

Authentication Errors (ERR_AUTH_xxx)

{
  "statusCode": 401,
  "code": "ERR_AUTH_001",
  "message": "You are not authorized to access this resource"
}

Code	Message	Solution
ERR_AUTH_001	You are not authorized to access this resource	Check API key is correct
ERR_AUTH_002	Invalid email or password	Check credentials
ERR_AUTH_003	Your session has expired	Refresh your authentication token

Validation Errors (ERR_VALID_xxx)

{
  "statusCode": 400,
  "code": "ERR_VALID_001",
  "message": "Component validation failed",
  "relatedInfo": {
    "errors": [
      { "field": "templateId", "message": "Template ID is required" }
    ]
  }
}

Code	Message
ERR_VALID_001	Component validation failed
ERR_VALID_002	Variable validation failed
ERR_VALID_003	Formula validation failed

Template Errors (ERR_TMPL_xxx)

{
  "statusCode": 404,
  "code": "ERR_TMPL_002",
  "message": "Document template not found",
  "relatedInfo": {
    "templateId": "tmpl_invalid"
  }
}

Code	Message
ERR_TMPL_001	Template not found
ERR_TMPL_002	Document template not found
ERR_TMPL_003	Attachment template not found
ERR_TMPL_008	Template schema validation failed

Quota Errors (ERR_QUOTA_xxx)

{
  "statusCode": 429,
  "code": "ERR_QUOTA_008",
  "message": "Monthly document generation quota exceeded",
  "relatedInfo": {
    "limit": 10000,
    "used": 10000,
    "resetsAt": "2025-12-01T00:00:00Z"
  }
}

Code	Message
ERR_QUOTA_003	Rate limit exceeded
ERR_QUOTA_008	Monthly document generation quota exceeded
ERR_QUOTA_011	Insufficient document credits

---

Implementing Error Handling

JavaScript/TypeScript

interface ApiError {
  statusCode: number;
  code: string;
  message: string;
  timestamp: string;
  path: string;
  relatedInfo?: Record<string, any>;
}

async function generateDocument(data: any) {
  try {
    const response = await fetch('https://api.renderdoc.dev/api/v1/documents/generate', {
      method: 'POST',
      headers: {
        'Authorization': `Bearer ${apiKey}`,
        'Content-Type': 'application/json'
      },
      body: JSON.stringify(data)
    });

    if (!response.ok) {
      const error: ApiError = await response.json();
      throw new RenderdocError(error);
    }

    return await response.json();
  } catch (error) {
    if (error instanceof RenderdocError) {
      handleRenderdocError(error);
    } else {
      // Network error
      console.error('Network error:', error);
    }
    throw error;
  }
}

class RenderdocError extends Error {
  statusCode: number;
  code: string;
  relatedInfo?: Record<string, any>;

  constructor(apiError: ApiError) {
    super(apiError.message);
    this.name = 'RenderdocError';
    this.statusCode = apiError.statusCode;
    this.code = apiError.code;
    this.relatedInfo = apiError.relatedInfo;
  }
}

function handleRenderdocError(error: RenderdocError) {
  switch (error.code) {
    case 'ERR_AUTH_001':
      // Invalid API key
      console.error('Invalid API key. Please check your credentials.');
      break;

    case 'ERR_QUOTA_008':
      // Quota exceeded
      const { limit, resetsAt } = error.relatedInfo!;
      console.error(`Monthly quota of ${limit} exceeded. Resets at ${resetsAt}`);
      break;

    case 'ERR_VALID_001':
      // Validation errors
      const { errors } = error.relatedInfo!;
      errors.forEach((err: any) => {
        console.error(`${err.field}: ${err.message}`);
      });
      break;

    case 'ERR_TMPL_002':
      // Template not found
      console.error(`Template not found: ${error.relatedInfo!.templateId}`);
      break;

    default:
      console.error('API error:', error.message);
  }
}

Python

from typing import Dict, Any, Optional
import requests

class RenderdocError(Exception):
    def __init__(self, status_code: int, code: str, message: str, related_info: Optional[Dict] = None):
        self.status_code = status_code
        self.code = code
        self.message = message
        self.related_info = related_info or {}
        super().__init__(self.message)

def generate_document(data: Dict[str, Any], api_key: str):
    try:
        response = requests.post(
            'https://api.renderdoc.dev/api/v1/documents/generate',
            headers={
                'Authorization': f'Bearer {api_key}',
                'Content-Type': 'application/json'
            },
            json=data
        )

        if not response.ok:
            error_data = response.json()
            raise RenderdocError(
                status_code=error_data['statusCode'],
                code=error_data['code'],
                message=error_data['message'],
                related_info=error_data.get('relatedInfo')
            )

        return response.json()

    except RenderdocError as e:
        handle_renderdoc_error(e)
        raise
    except requests.RequestException as e:
        print(f"Network error: {e}")
        raise

def handle_renderdoc_error(error: RenderdocError):
    if error.code == 'ERR_AUTH_001':
        print('Invalid API key. Please check your credentials.')
    elif error.code == 'ERR_QUOTA_008':
        limit = error.related_info.get('limit')
        resets_at = error.related_info.get('resetsAt')
        print(f'Monthly quota of {limit} exceeded. Resets at {resets_at}')
    elif error.code == 'ERR_VALID_001':
        errors = error.related_info.get('errors', [])
        for err in errors:
            print(f"{err['field']}: {err['message']}")
    elif error.code == 'ERR_TMPL_002':
        template_id = error.related_info.get('templateId')
        print(f'Template not found: {template_id}')
    else:
        print(f'API error: {error.message}')

---

Retry Strategies

Exponential Backoff

async function generateDocumentWithRetry(data, maxRetries = 3) {
  let lastError;

  for (let attempt = 0; attempt < maxRetries; attempt++) {
    try {
      return await generateDocument(data);
    } catch (error) {
      lastError = error;

      // Don't retry client errors (4xx except 429)
      if (error.statusCode >= 400 && error.statusCode < 500 && error.statusCode !== 429) {
        throw error;
      }

      // Calculate delay with exponential backoff
      const delay = Math.min(1000 * Math.pow(2, attempt), 10000);

      console.log(`Attempt ${attempt + 1} failed. Retrying in ${delay}ms...`);
      await new Promise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, delay));
    }
  }

  throw lastError;
}

Retry Conditions

Retry these errors:

• 500 Internal Server Error
• 502 Bad Gateway
• 503 Service Unavailable
• 504 Gateway Timeout
• 429 Too Many Requests (with backoff from Retry-After header)
• Network timeouts
• Connection errors

Don't retry these:

• 400 Bad Request - Fix request data
• 401 Unauthorized - Fix authentication
• 403 Forbidden - Fix permissions
• 404 Not Found - Resource doesn't exist
• 409 Conflict - Fix conflict
• 422 Unprocessable Entity - Fix business logic

---

Rate Limit Headers

Rate limit responses include headers:

HTTP/1.1 429 Too Many Requests
X-RateLimit-Limit: 100
X-RateLimit-Remaining: 0
X-RateLimit-Reset: 1699363200
Retry-After: 60

Using Rate Limit Headers

async function generateWithRateLimit(data) {
  try {
    const response = await fetch('https://api.renderdoc.dev/api/v1/documents/generate', {
      method: 'POST',
      headers: {
        'Authorization': `Bearer ${apiKey}`,
        'Content-Type': 'application/json'
      },
      body: JSON.stringify(data)
    });

    // Check rate limit headers
    const limit = parseInt(response.headers.get('X-RateLimit-Limit') || '0');
    const remaining = parseInt(response.headers.get('X-RateLimit-Remaining') || '0');
    const reset = parseInt(response.headers.get('X-RateLimit-Reset') || '0');

    console.log(`Rate limit: ${remaining}/${limit} remaining. Resets at ${new Date(reset * 1000)}`);

    if (response.status === 429) {
      const retryAfter = parseInt(response.headers.get('Retry-After') || '60');
      console.log(`Rate limited. Retry after ${retryAfter} seconds`);
      throw new Error('Rate limited');
    }

    if (!response.ok) {
      const error = await response.json();
      throw new RenderdocError(error);
    }

    return await response.json();
  } catch (error) {
    console.error('Error generating document:', error);
    throw error;
  }
}

---

Best Practices

1. Log All Errors

function logError(error, context) {
  console.error({
    timestamp: new Date().toISOString(),
    errorCode: error.code,
    statusCode: error.statusCode,
    message: error.message,
    context,
    relatedInfo: error.relatedInfo
  });

  // Send to error tracking service
  errorTracker.captureException(error, { extra: context });
}

2. Provide User-Friendly Messages

function getUserMessage(error) {
  const messages = {
    'ERR_AUTH_001': 'Authentication failed. Please check your API key.',
    'ERR_QUOTA_008': 'You have reached your monthly document limit. Please upgrade your plan or wait until next month.',
    'ERR_VALID_001': 'Please check your input and try again.',
    'ERR_TMPL_002': 'The requested template was not found.',
  };

  return messages[error.code] || 'An unexpected error occurred. Please try again later.';
}

3. Implement Circuit Breaker

class CircuitBreaker {
  constructor(threshold = 5, timeout = 60000) {
    this.failureCount = 0;
    this.threshold = threshold;
    this.timeout = timeout;
    this.state = 'closed'; // closed, open, half-open
    this.nextAttempt = Date.now();
  }

  async execute(fn) {
    if (this.state === 'open') {
      if (Date.now() < this.nextAttempt) {
        throw new Error('Circuit breaker is open');
      }
      this.state = 'half-open';
    }

    try {
      const result = await fn();
      this.onSuccess();
      return result;
    } catch (error) {
      this.onFailure();
      throw error;
    }
  }

  onSuccess() {
    this.failureCount = 0;
    this.state = 'closed';
  }

  onFailure() {
    this.failureCount++;
    if (this.failureCount >= this.threshold) {
      this.state = 'open';
      this.nextAttempt = Date.now() + this.timeout;
    }
  }
}

const breaker = new CircuitBreaker();

async function generateDocumentSafely(data) {
  return breaker.execute(() => generateDocument(data));
}

4. Monitor Error Rates

const errorMetrics = {
  total: 0,
  byCode: {},
  byStatusCode: {}
};

function trackError(error) {
  errorMetrics.total++;
  errorMetrics.byCode[error.code] = (errorMetrics.byCode[error.code] || 0) + 1;
  errorMetrics.byStatusCode[error.statusCode] = (errorMetrics.byStatusCode[error.statusCode] || 0) + 1;

  // Alert if error rate is high
  if (errorMetrics.total > 100 && errorMetrics.byStatusCode[500] / errorMetrics.total > 0.1) {
    alertAdmin('High server error rate');
  }
}

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Common Errors and Solutions

Error	Cause	Solution
ERR_AUTH_001	Invalid API key	Check API key in dashboard
ERR_AUTH_003	Session expired	Refresh authentication token
ERR_AUTH_005	Insufficient permissions	Update API key permissions
ERR_VALID_001	Validation failed	Check request body against API docs
ERR_TMPL_001	Template not found	Verify template ID exists
ERR_TMPL_002	Document template not found	Check template type and ID
ERR_QUOTA_003	Rate limit exceeded	Implement backoff strategy
ERR_QUOTA_008	Document quota exceeded	Upgrade plan or wait for reset
ERR_QUOTA_011	Insufficient credits	Purchase more credits
500	Server error	Retry with exponential backoff
503	Service unavailable	Check status page, retry later

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Related: Authentication | Rate Limiting