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
Parse the type field on Smartcar error responses rather than relying only on the HTTP status code
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
Treat permission errors as a signal to prompt the user to reauthenticate or reauthorize scopes, using any resolution guidance included in the error payload
Treat a vehicle-not-capable compatibility error as terminal for that vehicle and stop retrying the same request
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
Do not assume a single generic retry strategy works for every error type; vehicle-state errors are retryable, compatibility errors are not
Per-brand vehicle rate limits are set by the underlying OEM and are not configurable through Smartcar, unlike your application-level request limit
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