Errors

ArcSite uses HTTP response codes to indicate the success or failure of a request. Codes within the 2xx range are considered as successfully completed requests. Codes within the 4xx and 5xx ranges will indicate that a failure has occurred.

Error response body

Most error responses include a JSON body with a human-readable message that explains what went wrong:

{
  "message": "Project name Backyard Fence already exists, please use another name."
}

Treat message as text for logs and people, not as a stable identifier: branch on the HTTP status code. A 401 response usually has an empty body ({}), a request to a URL that doesn’t exist (including a trailing / on an endpoint path) returns a 404 with an HTML body, and an unexpected server error returns a 500 whose body has a different shape.

Status codes

Error Code	Meaning
400	Bad Request — Your request is invalid: a required field is missing, a value has the wrong type, or the request body isn’t valid JSON.
401	Unauthorized — The `Authorization` header is missing or malformed, or the API token is wrong or has been deleted.
403	Forbidden — The resource exists but belongs to an organization your API token can’t access.
404	Not Found — The specified resource could not be found.
405	Method Not Allowed — You tried to access an API with an invalid method.
406	Not Acceptable — The request has a body whose `Content-Type` isn’t `application/json` (or `multipart/form-data` for file uploads).
429	Too Many Requests — You have exceeded the rate limit.
500, 502, 503, 504	There is an issue with ArcSite. These are rare and we will be messaged when they occur.

Rate limits

Each company can make up to 5,000 API requests per hour. The limit counts requests to all endpoints and is shared by all API tokens of the company. The count resets at the start of each hour (UTC).

Requests over the limit return 429 Too Many Requests:

{
  "message": "Too many requests. Please wait before trying again."
}

When you receive a 429, wait until the next hour starts before you retry.