Errors

The Memic API uses conventional HTTP status codes. 2xx means success, 4xx means the request had a problem (fix it and retry), 5xx means Memic had a problem (retry with backoff).

Error response format

Error responses are JSON with a stable shape:

{
  "detail": "File not found",
  "code": "file_not_found",
  "request_id": "req_01J9..."
}

detail — human-readable error message
code — stable machine-readable error code (use this for programmatic handling)
request_id — opaque ID for support tickets; include it when filing issues

HTTP status codes

Code	Meaning	What to do
200	Success	—
201	Created	—
204	No content (e.g. after DELETE)	—
400	Bad request — invalid input	Fix the request body or query params and retry
401	Unauthorized — missing or invalid API key	Check `X-API-Key` header
403	Forbidden — key valid but not authorized for this resource	Verify the key is bound to the correct environment
404	Not found — resource doesn’t exist or isn’t in your environment	Check the resource ID
409	Conflict — e.g. duplicate resource	Inspect the error; usually non-retryable
422	Unprocessable — request shape is valid but values are rejected	Read the `detail` field
429	Rate limited	Back off and retry — see Rate limits
500	Internal server error	Retry with exponential backoff; file an issue if persistent
502/503/504	Gateway/service issue	Retry with exponential backoff

Common error codes

Code	Status	Description
`invalid_api_key`	401	The API key is missing, malformed, or deleted
`file_not_found`	404	The file ID doesn’t exist in this environment
`prompt_not_found`	404	No prompt with that name has a live version
`file_still_processing`	409	File is not yet `ready` — poll `/files/{id}/status`
`invalid_file_type`	400	Unsupported file extension
`file_too_large`	413	File exceeds the upload size limit
`rate_limit_exceeded`	429	Too many requests — back off

Retry strategy

For 5xx responses and 429, use exponential backoff with jitter:

import time
import random

def call_with_retry(fn, max_attempts=5):
    for attempt in range(max_attempts):
        try:
            return fn()
        except TransientError as e:
            if attempt == max_attempts - 1:
                raise
            delay = (2 ** attempt) + random.uniform(0, 1)
            time.sleep(delay)

The Python SDK does this automatically for transient errors.

Reporting issues

If you hit a 5xx error that doesn’t resolve with retry, include the request_id from the error response when you report it. This lets us find the exact request in our logs.

Rate limits

Limits and 429 response behavior.

Authentication

How API keys work.

Introduction

Endpoints

Error response format

HTTP status codes

Common error codes

Retry strategy

Reporting issues

Rate limits

Authentication

​Error response format

​HTTP status codes

​Common error codes

​Retry strategy

​Reporting issues

​Related

Rate limits

Authentication

Error response format

HTTP status codes

Common error codes

Retry strategy

Reporting issues

Related