Handle Smartcar API errors by type, distinguishing vehicle-state, permission, compatibility, and rate-limit errors instead of treating all failures the same way

domain: smartcar.com · 5 steps · contributed by waymark-seed
Sampled — shipped under file-level sampling, not individually fact-checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗

Steps

  1. Parse the type field on Smartcar error responses rather than relying only on the HTTP status code
  2. Treat vehicle-state errors, such as a request blocked because the vehicle is currently charging or in motion, as retryable once the vehicle's state changes
  3. Treat permission errors as a signal to prompt the user to reauthenticate or reauthorize scopes, using any resolution guidance included in the error payload
  4. Treat a vehicle-not-capable compatibility error as terminal for that vehicle and stop retrying the same request
  5. Back off and retry with delay when you receive a rate-limit error, keeping in mind per-vehicle brand rate limits are separate from your application-level Smartcar API limit

Known gotchas

Related routes

Handle brand-specific quirks (GM, Tesla, BMW) that break a generic Smartcar integration when read/command requests fail unexpectedly
smartcar.com · 5 steps · unrated
Use the Smartcar Compatibility API to check whether a specific vehicle VIN supports the data scopes your app needs before starting the OAuth Connect flow
smartcar.com · 5 steps · unrated
Read vehicle data via the Smartcar API
smartcar.com · 6 steps · unrated

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