Error Handling — Proposed Guide

Planned API — Reference Only

Error Handling: Error handling should distinguish an invalid request from insufficient access, a missing resource and a temporary dependency failure. The…

Overview

Error handling should distinguish an invalid request from insufficient access, a missing resource and a temporary dependency failure. The same retry policy is not appropriate for all of these outcomes.

Key concepts

Use a stable error code for branching and a request identifier for investigation. Field-level details should describe invalid input without echoing credentials or private financial information.

Implementation considerations

Do not retry an unauthorized request indefinitely. Correct validation failures before retrying, and consult the operation-specific contract before retrying a write.

Proposed API behavior

GET /v1/expenses/exp_example_123 is an illustrative design for this topic. Path and field names may change before implementation. Access would require an authorized organization context and operation-specific permission; no public API or authorization grant is available here.

No additional request fields are illustrated; this is not a finalized contract.

Static example requests

Proposed, non-executing request examples

# Proposed request text only; this reserved host is not a live API.
curl -X GET 'https://api.remizen.example/v1/expenses/exp_example_123' \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY'

Fictional response example

200 (proposed example)Static response fixture

Fictional documentation data only. No request was sent, record created, review performed, payment initiated or provider connection activated.

JSON

{
  "data": [
    {
      "expense_id": "exp_example_123",
      "id": "exp_example_123",
      "organization_id": "org_example_123",
      "merchant": "Example Office Supply",
      "amount_minor": 12550,
      "currency": "USD",
      "status": "draft"
    }
  ],
  "pagination": {
    "has_more": false,
    "next_cursor": null
  },
  "meta": {
    "request_id": "req_example_123",
    "reference_only": true
  }
}

Illustrative error case

Review this failure case in context: Do not retry an unauthorized request indefinitely. Correct validation failures before retrying, and consult the operation-specific contract before retrying a write.

422 (illustrative; final error contracts are undecided)Proposed error fixture

Synthetic diagnostic example. Human-readable messages must not be used as stable programmatic contracts.

JSON

{
  "error": {
    "code": "validation_error",
    "message": "The proposed error handling operation requires review of its input or authorization.",
    "request_id": "req_example_123"
  }
}

Proposed data types

Illustrative field dictionary
Name	Type	Description
expense_id	string	Stable fictional expense reference; not a secret and not evidence that a resource exists.
request_id	string	Stable fictional request reference; not a secret and not evidence that a resource exists.
error_code	string	Illustrative machine-readable error classification; final codes remain undecided.

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