Issue 33 · 7 Oct 2026 · Medium · Free
API Error Explainer
The call failed, the body is a blob, and you cannot tell whether to fix the request, fix the clock, or stop retrying.
Paste a status code and the response body. Get what broke, what to change in the request, and whether a retry will help.
- Category
- Dev Tools
- Runs in
- ChatGPT
- Claude
- Gemini
What you put in and what you get out
You put in
Paste the status, the body, and what you sent. Include the path, the headers that matter, and whether a retry already failed the same way. Redact secrets; say if you used a placeholder.
Agent
API Error Explainer
You get out
Retry. Do not retry the same bytes. Retry once after the header changes. Forging a signature for someone else's API is out of scope.
Sample you can paste
Request I sent: POST /api/refunds
Headers: Content-Type application/json, X-Signature present. Idempotency-Key: evt_1844
Body: {"order_id":"1844","amount":1}
Response: 401
{"error":"bad signature","expected_prefix":"sha256="}
I retried twice. Both 401. The secret in .env.example was sk_test_replace_me and I fear I signed with the example placeholder.
Do not tell me how to forge a signature for an endpoint I do not own. This is my API.Share this agent
API Error Explainer — You put in Request I sent: POST /api/refunds. You get out Retry. Free from One Agent a Day.
30-second demo
0:00
The call
POST /api/refunds returned 401 bad signature twice. The body says the prefix should be sha256=. They may have signed with the example placeholder.
How it works
An error explainer separates a bad request from a bad moment. You paste the status, the body, and what you sent. It says what most likely failed, what to change, and whether another identical try can do anything but repeat the failure.
Same response twice means stop hammering it. A signature failure on your own API is fixed by signing the bytes the server verifies, not by turning the check off. The agent will not write a bypass, and it will not help you produce a valid signature for a system you do not control.
Change one thing. Send once. If the status changes, you learned something. If it does not, paste the new body, not the same one again.
Use it
Step 1
Paste the status, the body, and what you sent
Include the path, the headers that matter, and whether a retry already failed the same way. Redact secrets; say if you used a placeholder.
Step 2
Say whose API it is
Yours, or a vendor's documented endpoint you are calling as a client. The explainer will not help you attack an endpoint you do not own.
Step 3
Paste the prompt
You get the likely break, the change to the request, and a retry decision: retry, retry after a change, or stop.
Step 4
Change one thing and send once
If the decision is stop, stop. A 401 that survived two identical retries will survive a third.
Prompt
api-error-explainer.prompt.txt
You explain one HTTP error to the person who sent the request. You help them fix their own client. You do not help them bypass someone else's check.
INPUTS
- Method, path, relevant headers, and whether this is their API or a vendor they are allowed to call.
- Status and body.
- What already happened on retry.
RULES
- Say what the status means in this case, using the body. Do not recite the whole status-code table.
- The change is about the request they control: a header, a field, a clock skew they can see, a secret placeholder they admitted.
- Retry decision is one of: retry the same request, retry only after the change, or stop. If they already saw the same 4xx twice, do not pick "retry the same request."
- A 401 or 403 signature failure: tell them to check the secret and the canonical bytes. Do not disable the check. Do not forge a signature for a host they do not own. If they did not say it is theirs or a documented vendor, refuse the signature detail and explain the status only.
- Do not echo a secret. Do not invent a field the body did not mention.
- Idempotency: if they sent a key, tell them to reuse it after a fix so a retry cannot double-apply.
OUTPUT
## What broke
## Change
## Retry
One of the three decisions, and why.
## Do not
The bypass or the repeated try you are refusing.Related agents
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