Errors

Consult this page for an overview of how Meilisearch reports and formats error objects.

Meilisearch uses the following standard HTTP codes for a successful or failed API request:

Status code	Description
200	✅ Ok Everything worked as expected.
201	✅ Created The resource has been created (synchronous)
202	✅ Accepted The task has been added to the queue (asynchronous)
204	✅ No Content The resource has been deleted or no content has been returned
205	✅ Reset Content All the resources have been deleted
400	❌ Bad Request The request was unacceptable, often due to missing a required parameter
401	❌ Unauthorized No valid API key provided
403	❌ Forbidden The API key doesn’t have the permissions to perform the request
404	❌ Not Found The requested resource doesn’t exist

Errors

All detailed task responses contain an error field. When a task fails, it is always accompanied by a JSON-formatted error response. Meilisearch errors can be of one of the following types:

Type	Description
invalid_request	This is due to an error in the user input. It is accompanied by the HTTP code 4xx
internal	This is due to machine or configuration constraints. It is accompanied by the HTTP code 5xx
auth	This type of error is related to authentication and authorization. It is accompanied by the HTTP code 4xx
system	This indicates your system has reached or exceeded its limit for disk size, index size, open files, or the database doesn’t have read or write access. It is accompanied by the HTTP code 5xx

Error format

{
  "message": "Index `movies` not found.",
  "code": "index_not_found",
  "type": "invalid_request",
  "link": "https://docs.meilisearch.com/errors#index_not_found"
}

Field	Description
message	Human-readable description of the error
code	Error code
type	Type of error returned
link	Link to the relevant section of the documentation

If you’re having trouble understanding an error, take a look at the complete list of code values and descriptions.

TEST RESPONSE FIELD COMPONENT

message · string

Human-readable description of the error

code · string

Error code

type · string

Type of error returned

link · string

Link to the relevant section of the documentation