Operations · 2026-08-28 · HippoAPI Documentation Team

Troubleshoot API errors

Separate authentication, request, balance, rate, model, and server failures and respond safely.

Classify before retrying

A 401 or 403 points to credentials or access; 400-class validation errors require request changes; insufficient-balance errors require wallet review; 429 indicates a limit; 500-class responses may be transient.

Preserve useful evidence

Record time, request identifier, endpoint, model, HTTP status, and a redacted error summary. Do not log API keys, authorization headers, or full prompts containing sensitive data.

Fallback only when it is safe

A fallback model can differ in quality, tool behavior, safety, context, and price. Route to an alternative only after your application has evaluated it for the same task and can prevent duplicate side effects.