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User-Facing Errors

Because Ory Kratos doesn't render User Interfaces, we implemented a flow that allows you to implement the error page in any way you want.

User-Facing Errors in the Browser​

When a user-facing error occurs for example during Self Service User Login, Ory Kratos will store error message and context and redirect the User's Browser to the Error UI URL set by the selfservice.flows.error.ui_url configuration or SELFSERVICE_FLOWS_ERROR_UI_URL environment variable.

Assuming selfservice.flows.error.ui_url is set to https://example.org/errors, Ory Kratos will redirect the User's Browser to https://example.org/errors?id=abcde.

The route matching https://example.org/errors uses the error URL Query parameter value abcde to make a request to Ory Kratos' Public or Admin API https://kratos-<public|admin>/self-service/errors?id=abcde. The JSON Response contains a list of errors and their details, for example:

[
  {
    "code": 500,
    "message": "no such file or directory"
  }
]

We're working on documenting possible error messages and homogenize error layouts. Errors have the following keys defined:

{
  "code": 500,
  "message": "some message",
  "reason": "some reason",
  "debug": "some debug info"
}

User-Facing Errors when consuming APIs​

When a user-facing error occurs and the HTTP client is an API Client (for example a mobile app), the error will be returned as the HTTP Response. No additional steps are required.

Using Stub Errors​

The error endpoint supports stub errors which can be used to implement your Error UI:

  • ?id=stub:500 - returns a stub 500 (Internal Server Error) error.

To call a stub error, simply do:

curl -s \
  'https://playground.projects.oryapis.com/api/kratos/public/self-service/errors?id=stub:500' | jq

{
  "id": "9f900efa-a5ea-4dfd-8311-a8c7448ffeec",
  "error": {
    "code": 500,
    "status": "Internal Server Error",
    "reason": "This is a stub error.",
    "message": "An internal server error occurred, please contact the system administrator"
  },
  "created_at": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z",
  "updated_at": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z"
}