Errors

In this guide, we will talk about what happens when something goes wrong while you work with the API. Mistakes happen, and mostly they will be yours, not ours. Let's look at some status codes and error types you might encounter.

You can tell if your request was successful by checking the status code when receiving an API response. If a response comes back unsuccessful, you can use the error type and error message to figure out what has gone wrong and do some rudimentary debugging (before contacting support).

Before reaching out to support with an error, please be aware that 99% of all reported errors are, in fact, user errors. Therefore, please carefully check your code before contacting Pdfless support.

Status codes

Here is a list of the different categories of status codes returned by the Pdfless API. Use these to understand if a request was successful.

  • Name
    2xx
    Type
    Description

    A 2xx status code indicates a successful response.

  • Name
    4xx
    Type
    Description

    A 4xx status code indicates a client error — this means it's a you problem.

  • Name
    5xx
    Type
    Description

    A 5xx status code indicates a server error — you won't be seeing these.

Error types

Whenever a request is unsuccessful, the Pdfless API will return an error response with an error code and message. You can use this information to understand better what has gone wrong and how to fix it. Most of the error messages are pretty helpful and actionable.

  • Name
    message
    Type
    Description

    Error description.

  • Name
    error_code
    Type
    Description

    Error code.

  • Name
    documentation_url
    Type
    Description

    Documentation link

  • Name
    correlation_id
    Type
    Description

    Unique identifier for pdfless support

Error response

{
  "message": "Template not found",
  "error_code": "not_found",
  "documentation_url": null,
  "correlation_id": "898bbd77-a36b-4e8a-986e-6d52d5ca5574"
}

Error Code

  • Name
    quota_exceeded
    Type
    Description

    Credit for this month is consumed, please upgrade your account subscription or contact our support.

  • Name
    inactive
    Type
    Description

    If you use an ApiKey binding to an deleted workspace, will throw this error code.

  • Name
    missing_property
    Type
    Description

    If property is missing (apikey, template_id)

  • Name
    rendering_error
    Type
    Description

    Error occured during generation of document.