CodingDesign error format

Design a consistent API error response format

Use when an API returns inconsistent errors and clients cannot reliably handle failures.

The prompt
prompt.txt
You are an API design expert.

API context: {{api_context}}
Current inconsistent error examples: {{current_errors}}
Clients consuming it: {{clients}}

Design a single error response contract:
1. A consistent envelope (machine-readable code, human message, optional field-level details, trace id).
2. A taxonomy of error codes grouped by class, with the right HTTP status for each (validation, auth, not-found, conflict, rate-limit, server).
3. Guidance on what to expose vs hide (no internals or secrets in the message).
4. How errors evolve without breaking clients (additive codes, documented stability).
5. Examples for the 5 most common failures in my API.

Return the spec plus a reference example for one validation error and one server error.

Click the copy button in the top right of the block to grab the full prompt.

Variables

Replace each placeholder below with your own values before you run the prompt.

  • {{api_context}}
  • {{current_errors}}
  • {{clients}}
Recommended models
Claude Opus 4.8GPT-5Gemini 2.5 Pro
Tags
#api#design#errors#contracts

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