Errors

All public API errors use one JSON envelope with a stable code and message.

ProteinIQ API errors use a consistent JSON envelope. Clients should branch on error.code, not on the human-readable message.

Error envelope

JSON

{
  "error": {
    "code": "validation_error",
    "message": "Invalid request data",
    "details": {}
  }
}

The details field is included only when the route has structured details to return.

Error codes

Code	HTTP status	Meaning
`invalid_json`	`400`	The request body is not valid JSON
`validation_error`	`400`	The request body, query, cursor, or route input is invalid. Job input errors include the rejected path and the canonical input format.
`unauthorized`	`401`	The API key is missing, malformed, expired, revoked, or invalid
`insufficient_credits`	`402`	The workspace does not have enough credits for the requested job
`paid_plan_required`	`402`	The requested action requires an active paid workspace plan
`daily_limit_exceeded`	`402`	The workspace reached a daily submission limit
`concurrent_job_limit_exceeded`	`402`	The workspace has too many active jobs
`forbidden`	`403`	The key is valid but lacks access or the required scope
`user_not_found`	`404`	The user associated with the API key no longer exists
`team_not_found`	`404`	The workspace associated with the API key no longer exists
`not_found`	`404`	The resource does not exist in the API key workspace
`method_not_allowed`	`405`	The route does not support the HTTP method
`conflict`	`409`	The request conflicts with the current resource state
`job_not_completed`	`409`	Results were requested before a job reached a result-ready state
`payload_too_large`	`413`	The request body is too large
`unsupported_media_type`	`415`	A JSON route was called without `Content-Type: application/json`
`rate_limited`	`429`	The request exceeded the public API rate limit
`internal_error`	`500`	The request failed unexpectedly

Handling errors

Retry rate_limited: Respect Retry-After and the rate-limit reset headers when present.
Retry transient internal_error responses carefully: Use Idempotency-Key when retrying job submissions.
Do not retry validation_error unchanged: Inspect the request shape, tool input contract, and field names.
Rebuild rejected job inputs from the tool contract: Mixed canonical and retired fields are rejected. Send only input.inputs[] entries with slotId, kind, format, content, and source.
Treat not_found as workspace-scoped: A job outside the API key workspace returns not_found.
Handle job_not_completed by waiting: Poll status or use the events endpoint before fetching results again. When Retry-After is present, wait that many seconds before retrying the result endpoint.

JavaScript example

JavaScript

const response = await fetch("https://proteiniq.io/api/v1/jobs", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.PROTEINIQ_API_KEY}`,
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
    "Idempotency-Key": "fold-lysozyme-001",
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    tool: "esmfold",
    name: "Lysozyme ESMFold run",
    input: {
      inputs: [
        {
          id: "seqs_1",
          slotId: "protein",
          kind: "protein",
          format: "fasta",
          content: ">seq\nMKT...",
          source: { type: "text" },
        },
      ],
    },
    settings: {},
  }),
});

const payload = await response.json();
if (!response.ok) {
  switch (payload.error.code) {
    case "rate_limited":
      throw new Error("Wait before retrying");
    case "validation_error":
      throw new Error(`Fix request: ${payload.error.message}`);
    default:
      throw new Error(`${payload.error.code}: ${payload.error.message}`);
  }
}