When integrating Cord’s API, it’s worth handling failed responses well to give a good experience.

Error structure

Failed responses return a flat JSON object with two fields:

{
  "error": "Company name is required",
  "code": "invalid_request"
}

• error: a human-readable message you can show or log.
• code: a stable identifier to branch on in your code (e.g. invalid_json, invalid_request).

Common HTTP codes

• 400 Bad Request: a parameter is missing or the JSON is malformed.
• 401 Unauthorized: your API key is invalid, revoked, or you didn’t send the Authorization header.
• 403 Forbidden: your key lacks the required scope (e.g. using a read-only key for a POST).
• 404 Not Found: the resource doesn’t exist or doesn’t belong to your organization.
• 429 Too Many Requests: you exceeded the request limit. See Rate limits.
• 500 Internal Server Error: an error on our side (rare; contact support if it persists).

Note: the v1 API does not process card charges directly (that happens on the public link via Stripe), so you won’t see card-declined errors in these responses.