api-error-handling

What it does

This skill enables AI agents to automatically detect, categorize, and resolve API failures during execution. It transforms raw error codes into actionable insights, allowing the agent to retry requests with adjusted parameters or switch to fallback strategies without human intervention.

When to use it

• Retry Logic: Automatically re-attempt failed network requests after a transient timeout or rate limit error.
• Fallback Activation: Trigger alternative data sources when primary API endpoints return 503 Service Unavailable errors.
• Error Reporting: Format unstructured API error messages into structured logs for debugging complex backend issues.
• Graceful Degradation: Adjust response quality or skip non-critical steps when an external service returns a 429 Too Many Requests status.

Key capabilities

• Parses HTTP status codes and standard error payloads.
• Implements exponential backoff strategies for retry attempts.
• Maps specific error types to predefined recovery actions.
• Logs detailed context including request IDs and response bodies.

Example prompts

• "Execute this data fetch sequence, but if you receive a 500 Internal Server Error, wait 10 seconds and try again up to three times."
• "If the payment API returns an error code indicating insufficient funds, switch to the backup wallet provider instead of failing the transaction."
• "Log all API errors encountered during this workflow with their specific status codes and the exact timestamp they occurred."

Tips & gotchas

Ensure your agent has access to a retry mechanism or fallback configuration; otherwise, it may loop indefinitely on persistent failures. Always define clear thresholds for how many times an error should be retried before escalating to a human operator.