Errors

The Honeycomb API uses standard HTTP status codes and returns structured error responses that describe what went wrong. The response format depends on which API version the endpoint uses.

Error Response Formats

Honeycomb uses two error formats depending on the API version.

V1 Endpoints
V2 Endpoints

V1 endpoints return errors in RFC7807 Problem Detail format:

{
"status": 404,
"type": "https://api.honeycomb.io/problems/not-found",
"title": "The requested resource cannot be found.",
"error": "Dataset not found",
"detail": "Dataset not found"
}

Field	Description
`status`	HTTP status code.
`type`	URI that identifies the error type.
`title`	Human-readable summary of the error type.
`error`	Description of the error.
`detail`	Additional detail about this specific error instance.

Some V1 endpoints return a simpler legacy format with only an error field:

{ "error": "unknown API key - check your credentials" }

V2 endpoints return errors in JSON:API format:

{
"errors": [
    {
    "id": "06dcdd6508ca822f0e7e2bb4121c1f52",
    "code": "invalid",
    "title": "request body could not be parsed",
    "detail": "invalid gzip data"
    }
]
}

Field	Description
`id`	A unique identifier for this error instance.
`code`	A machine-readable error code.
`title`	A human-readable summary of the error.
`detail`	Additional detail about this specific error instance.

HTTP Status Codes

Status	Name	Description
`400`	Bad Request	The request body could not be parsed or is invalid. Check the request format and content type.
`401`	Unauthorized	The API key is missing or invalid. Check your credentials.
`403`	Forbidden	The API key does not have permission for this operation. Check the key’s permissions or scopes.
`404`	Not Found	The requested resource does not exist. Check the resource identifier in your request.
`409`	Conflict	The request conflicts with the current state of the resource, such as a duplicate name.
`413`	Payload Too Large	The request body exceeds the maximum allowed size of 100,000 bytes.
`415`	Unsupported Media Type	The `Content-Type` header does not match what the endpoint expects. Check the content type for this endpoint.
`422`	Validation Failed	The request was valid but contained invalid values. The response body includes details about which fields failed validation.
`429`	Rate Limited	You have exceeded the rate limit. For details, visit Rate Limits.
`500`	Internal Server Error	An unexpected error occurred on Honeycomb’s side. If this persists, contact Honeycomb Support.

Validation Errors

422 responses include a type_detail array that identifies which fields failed and why:

{
  "status": 422,
  "type": "https://api.honeycomb.io/problems/validation-failed",
  "title": "The provided input is invalid.",
  "error": "The provided input is invalid.",
  "type_detail": [
    {
      "field": "type",
      "code": "invalid",
      "description": "type: must be a valid value"
    }
  ]
}

Validation code	Meaning
`invalid`	The field value is not acceptable.
`missing`	A required field was not provided.
`incorrect_type`	The field value is the wrong data type.
`already_exists`	The value conflicts with an existing resource.

Getting Started

Reference

API Endpoints

Error Response Formats

HTTP Status Codes

Validation Errors

​Error Response Formats

​HTTP Status Codes

​Validation Errors

Error Response Formats

HTTP Status Codes

Validation Errors