Errors and Recovery

Current error handling, proposed recovery rules and rehearsal gaps

Error body

Errors use an error object containing a machine-readable code, a message and optional field details (path, problem). The implementation may return the first failing semantic check; it does not guarantee a complete list of every problem in one response.

Handling responses

Status	Meaning and action
400	Malformed JSON or request-schema failure. Inspect and fix the payload.
401	Missing or unknown API key. Confirm the environment and credential.
404	Requested stored cycle is unavailable. Reconcile before concluding it was never accepted; current state is lost on restart.
409	An existing cycle ID or weights version was reused with a different body. Recover the original result or correct the request; do not overwrite it.
413	Body exceeds an implementation size protection. Arrange a limit change or batch protocol; do not discard candidates.
415	Unsupported image content type. The proposed image route accepts JPEG.
422	Semantic validation failed, such as a future cycle time or a cycle ID that does not match its timestamp. Inspect the error body.
408, 429, 500, 502, 503, 504	Potentially transient; the supplied client supports bounded retries. Preserve the cycle ID and body, and stay within the agreed decision deadline. Honor Retry-After if provided.

Per-endpoint 403 scope checks and a rate-limiter returning 429 are not currently implemented by the API. Their presence in earlier documentation did not establish that they were active. Duplicate-post detection also needs verification; do not rely on the current handler to reject duplicates.

Late responses and undelivered data

DCinside skips late or stale scores for that decision cycle. This is separate from reliable delivery: preserve unacknowledged candidates, images and removals until they can be reconciled. The next request’s current engagement alone cannot recover missing candidate metadata.

After an uncertain timeout, retrieve the stored response or replay the original request with the same ID and body. Cross-cycle recovery and restart behavior must be agreed and tested. An HTTP 500 does not itself prove an alert was sent; no-data alert delivery is a separate rehearsal check.