> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://direkt.mintlify.site/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Error Handling

> How to handle errors from the Direkt API.

## Error format

All errors follow this shape:

```json theme={null}
{
  "error": "ValidationError",
  "message": "amount must be a positive number"
}
```

## Common errors

| HTTP Code | `error`            | Fix                               |
| --------- | ------------------ | --------------------------------- |
| `400`     | `ValidationError`  | Check your request body params    |
| `401`     | `Unauthorized`     | Check your API key                |
| `404`     | `NotFound`         | Payment ID doesn't exist          |
| `422`     | `UnsupportedChain` | Use a chain from `/api/chains`    |
| `429`     | `RateLimited`      | Back off and retry after 1 minute |
| `500`     | `InternalError`    | Retry with exponential backoff    |

## Retry strategy

```js theme={null}
async function fetchWithRetry(url, options, maxRetries = 3) {
  for (let i = 0; i < maxRetries; i++) {
    const res = await fetch(url, options);
    if (res.status !== 429 && res.status < 500) return res;
    await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, 1000 * 2 ** i));
  }
  throw new Error('Max retries exceeded');
}
```