Ramp API Error Triage
Overview
Turn a failing request into a sanitized, reproducible diagnosis. Separate permanent request or authority failures from transient service conditions before retrying anything.
Prerequisites
- Identify the Ramp application, environment, business entities, affected data and workflows, accountable owner, and rollback boundary.
- Read
references/official-docs.mdand re-check endpoint schemas, scopes, limits, and support status before a live operation. - Use synthetic fixtures or Ramp sandbox until production access and business effects are explicitly approved.
- Prepare approved secret storage and a sanitized evidence location.
Current Contract
- Ramp returns standard HTTP status codes and may include
error_v2.error_code,additional_info, and a user-facing message. - Every API response includes
x-trace-id; preserve it for correlation and support without logging authorization or sensitive payloads. - 401 indicates a missing, expired, or invalid token; 403 indicates a valid token without sufficient scope or resource authority.
- 429 and 5xx may be retried with bounded exponential backoff; 504 means the request crossed Ramp's 60-second timeout.
Instructions
-
Capture method, sanitized URL, status, response class,
x-trace-id, attempt count, environment, grant type, and requested scope without recording secrets or raw sensitive bodies. -
Validate the request against the current endpoint schema, including required and nested fields; never rely on an unknown field being ignored.
-
For 401, refresh or reacquire the appropriate token once. For 403, compare configured scopes, token-bound scopes, app grant, user role, entity access, and endpoint authority.
-
For 429, 5xx, or 504, retry only idempotent reads or writes protected by an idempotency key, using bounded exponential backoff and jitter.
-
Reproduce in sandbox with the smallest sanitized request, preserve the trace ID and outcome, and escalate persistent vendor-side failures with the evidence bundle.
Tool Discipline
- Use Glob to locate candidate code, manifests, fixtures, and evidence without widening scope.
- Use Grep to find relevant endpoints, fields, permissions, identifiers, errors, and stale assumptions.
- Use Read to inspect the smallest required local files and authoritative evidence.
- Use Write only for a new approved local draft, test, configuration, or evidence artifact.
- Use Edit only for a bounded approved change with a known rollback.
- Local file tools do not authorize a Ramp operation or replace owner approval.
Approval Boundaries
The integration owner approves any request correction. Security approves credential rotation; finance or workflow owners approve replay of a write with business effects.
Output
A failure classification, sanitized reproducer, trace ID, authority comparison, retry/replay decision, fix, and post-fix verification.
Error Handling
| Condition | Response |
|---|---|
| A body contains financial or personal data | Store only a redacted field inventory and one-way identifiers; do not paste the body into tickets. |
| A write timed out after submission | Reconcile the resource or deferred task before retrying; use the original idempotency key. |
| The same call alternates 401 and 403 | Verify environment and token provenance before changing scopes or roles. |
Examples
Example 1
Diagnose a 403 transaction read by comparing transactions:read, the token's environment, and the authorizing user's access.
Example 2
Triage a 504 accounting export, reconcile whether the sync receipt exists, then retry only the uncommitted idempotent unit.
Validation
- The diagnosis distinguishes request, authentication, authorization, rate, timeout, and service failures.
- The evidence includes
x-trace-idbut no secret or sensitive business payload. - Every retry has a bounded budget and an idempotency/reconciliation rationale.
- The corrected request is verified in sandbox or with an approved read-only production probe.
Resources
- Official documentation and contract notes
- Re-check the dated contract and current OpenAPI schema before any live request.
- Treat unresolved vendor behavior, authority, or financial state as a stop condition.