Let's learn how to provide meaniful error messages through examples.

Clear and concise messages

Make sure the message is clear and easy to understand for the end user.

{
  "error": "Invalid input: Missing required parameter 'email'."
}

Include error codes

Include error codes in the response to help developers debug the issue.

{
  "error": {
    "code": 400,
    "message": "Bad Request: Invalid input data."
  }
}

Provide suggestion to fix the issue

Sometimes the error message is not enough to fix the issue. In that case, provide a suggestion to help the user fix the issue.

{
  "error": {
    "code": 404,
    "message": "Not Found: The requested resource does not exist. Please check the URL and try again."
  }
}

Make sure to not leak internal errors

Do not leak internal errors to the end user. Instead, log the error and provide a generic error message.

{
  "error": {
    "code": 500,
    "message": "Internal Server Error: Something went wrong. Please try again later."
  }
}

Localization

It is optional and only valid if your API supports multiple languages.

{
  "error": {
    "code": 401,
    "message": {
      "en": "Unauthorized: Please log in to access this resource.",
      "es": "No autorizado: Por favor, inicie sesión para acceder a este recurso."
    }
  }
}

Hope this helps you to learn some techniques to provide meaningful error messages in your API response to help developers and users 🚀