SerpAPI Privacy-Safe Debug Bundle
Overview
Collect enough evidence to reproduce or escalate an issue while excluding credentials, sensitive queries, and unnecessary result data.
Prerequisites
- Incident window, affected engine, search ID if available, and an incident owner
- Data classification and approval for any query or result disclosure
- Current client version, runtime, deployment, and retry configuration
Tool Discipline
Use Read, Glob, and Grep to trace code and logs, WebFetch to verify status and support contracts, Write or Edit for the redacted bundle, and Bash(python3:*) only for approved Account API or archive diagnostics.
Current Contract
Account API supplies plan usage and hourly throughput without consuming monthly searches. Standard search records expire after the documented retention period; archive access can return 410 after deletion. ZeroTrace searches intentionally have no archive record and are harder to debug.
Authentication
Load SERPAPI_KEY only in the diagnostic process. Remove api_key, key-bearing URLs, account email and ID, sensitive query values, raw HTML, and unrelated results before saving or sharing the bundle.
Instructions
- Freeze the time window and record safe runtime, client, deployment, engine, timeout, retry, and region facts.
- Extract HTTP status, top-level error, search status, search ID, timing, and parameter names from existing evidence.
- With approval, query Account API and retain only searches left, current usage, current/hourly usage, and account throughput.
- Retrieve an archive record only when it exists, remains within retention, and its data classification permits access.
- Reproduce against a sanitized fixture first; perform one bounded live reproduction only if necessary and approved.
- Run automated and human redaction checks, create a manifest with hashes, and keep the raw working material in the approved incident boundary.
- Share the smallest bundle needed for support and record recipient, purpose, retention, and deletion date.
Output
Return a bundle manifest, redacted context and metadata, Account API capacity snapshot, fixture/live reproduction result, hashes, redaction evidence, and support handoff owner.
Error Handling
| Condition | Response |
|---|---|
| Search ID is absent | Diagnose from safe local evidence; do not invent an archive lookup. |
| Archive returns 410 | Record expiry and request approval before reproducing the search. |
| Search used ZeroTrace | State that no archive is expected and rely on local redacted evidence. |
| Redaction cannot be proven | Do not export the bundle. |
Example
incident=SERP-42; engine=google; http=503; search_id=present; account_capacity=healthy; fixture=reproduced; live_replay=not-needed; secrets=0; bundle_sha256=recorded
Resources
Next Steps
Delete the shared bundle on schedule and convert the resolved failure into a sanitized regression fixture.