Error Design for Healthcare APIs

Give developers machine-readable failures without leaking sensitive context.

Use stable error codes

Use stable error codes is the first design decision for healthcare API errors. Give developers machine-readable failures without leaking sensitive context. Write the boundary down before choosing endpoints or drawing clinical-looking UI so reviewers can test the actual promise.

Attach request IDs

For healthcare API errors, attach request ids should remain observable rather than becoming hidden adapter behavior. Give resolution, lookup, and interpretation separate states, then decide which failures a user may retry.

Distinguish dependency failures

Distinguish dependency failures needs an operational test, not only a happy-path example. Add a bounded timeout, stable error handling, request IDs, privacy-safe logging, and a fixture that proves the healthcare API errors workflow fails closed.