rest-graphql-debug

Debug 401 errors by confirming the Authorization header is present with curl -v, checking token expiry via the JWT exp claim, and verifying the correct auth scheme. For 403, check token scopes, resource ownership, and IP allowlists.

GraphQL servers often return HTTP 200 even when the query fails, placing failure details in the errors field of the response body. Always inspect the errors array regardless of status code and check each error's message and path.

Handle 429 responses with exponential backoff that respects the Retry-After and X-RateLimit headers. Retry the request up to five times, sleeping for the Retry-After value or 2^attempt seconds between attempts.

Use curl via the terminal for quick single-request checks like headers, TLS inspection, and timing breakdowns. Use Python requests for multi-step flows spanning authentication, pagination, and response validation where variables must persist.

These errors usually come from a Content-Type and body mismatch, such as passing data= with a JSON header, which sends form-encoded data. Use json= so requests serializes the payload and sets the header automatically.

Skip this layered HTTP debugging flow for UI rendering issues, database query tuning, or DNS and firewall infrastructure problems, which should be escalated to the appropriate specialty. It targets application-layer API failures only.