Common Issues general

API Calls Failing With Errors in My AI App

Your app makes calls to an API (its own backend, Supabase, or a third-party service) and those calls fail. You see errors in the console like 500, 403, 404, or CORS errors.

Error Messages You Might See

CORS policy: No 'Access-Control-Allow-Origin' header 500 Internal Server Error 403 Forbidden 401 Unauthorized net::ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED Timeout: request took too long
CORS policy: No 'Access-Control-Allow-Origin' header500 Internal Server Error403 Forbidden401 Unauthorizednet::ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSEDTimeout: request took too long

Common Causes

  • CORS not configured — browser blocks requests from your domain to the API
  • API key or auth token expired, missing, or wrong
  • API endpoint URL is wrong (still pointing to localhost or old URL)
  • Rate limiting — too many requests in a short time
  • Backend server error (500) due to unhandled exceptions

How to Fix It

  1. Open browser Network tab (F12 > Network) and find the failing request — check the status code and response body
  2. For CORS errors: configure your API server to allow requests from your frontend domain
  3. For 401/403: check that your API key or auth token is being sent correctly in the request headers
  4. For 500: check server logs for the actual error — the frontend error won't have details
  5. For timeouts: check if the API endpoint is accessible from your deployment environment

Real developers can help you.

Dor Yaloz Dor Yaloz SW engineer with 6+ years of experience, I worked with React/Node/Python did projects with React+Capacitor.js for ios Supabase expert Prakash Prajapati Prakash Prajapati I’m a Senior Python Developer specializing in building secure, scalable, and highly available systems. I work primarily with Python, Django, FastAPI, Docker, PostgreSQL, and modern AI tooling such as PydanticAI, focusing on clean architecture, strong design principles, and reliable DevOps practices. I enjoy solving complex engineering problems and designing systems that are maintainable, resilient, and built to scale. zipking zipking I am a technologist and product builder dedicated to creating high-impact solutions at the intersection of AI and specialized markets. Currently, I am focused on PropScan (EstateGuard), an AI-driven SaaS platform tailored for the Japanese real estate industry, and exploring the potential of Archify. As an INFJ-T, I approach development with a "systems-thinking" mindset—balancing technical precision with a deep understanding of user needs. I particularly enjoy the challenge of architecting Vertical AI SaaS and optimizing Small Language Models (SLMs) to solve specific, real-world business problems. Whether I'm in a CTO-level leadership role or hands-on with the code, I thrive on building tools that turn complex data into actionable value. Milan Surelia Milan Surelia Milan Surelia is a Mobile App Developer with 5+ years of experience crafting scalable, cross-platform apps at 7Span and Meticha. At 7Span, he engineers feature-rich Flutter apps with smooth performance and modern UI. As the Co-Founder of Meticha, he builds open-source tools and developer-focused products that solve real-world problems. Expertise: 💡 Developing cross-platform apps using Flutter, Dart, and Jetpack Compose for Android, iOS, and Web. 🖋️ Sharing insights through technical writing, blogging, and open-source contributions. 🤝 Collaborating closely with designers, PMs, and developers to build seamless mobile experiences. Notable Achievements: 🎯 Revamped the Vepaar app into Vepaar Store & CRM with a 2x performance boost and smoother UX. 🚀 Launched Compose101 — a Jetpack Compose starter kit to speed up Android development. 🌟 Open source contributions on Github & StackOverflow for Flutter & Dart 🎖️ Worked on improving app performance and user experience with smart solutions. Milan is always happy to connect, work on new ideas, and explore the latest in technology. MFox MFox Full-stack professional senior engineer (15+years). Extensive experience in software development, qa, and IP networking. Sage Fulcher Sage Fulcher Hey I'm Sage! Im a Boston area software engineer who grew up in South Florida. Ive worked at a ton of cool places like a telehealth kidney care startup that took part in a billion dollar merger (Cricket health/Interwell health), a boutique design agency where I got to work on a ton of exciting startups including a photography education app, a collegiate Esports league and more (Philosophie), a data analytics as a service startup in Cambridge (MA) as well as at Phillips and MIT Lincoln Lab where I designed and developed novel network security visualizations and analytics. I've been writing code and furiously devoted to using computers to make people’s lives easier for about 17 years. My degree is in making computers make pretty lights and sounds. Outside of work I love hip hop, the Celtics, professional wrestling, magic the gathering, photography, drumming, and guitars (both making and playing them) Tejas Chokhawala Tejas Chokhawala Full-stack engineer with 5 years experience building production web apps using React, Next.js and TypeScript. Focused on performance, clean architecture and shipping fast. Experienced with Supabase/Postgres backends, Stripe billing, and building AI-assisted developer tools. Pratik Pratik SWE with 15+ years of experience building and maintaining web apps and extensive BE infrastructure Yovel Cohen Yovel Cohen I got a lot of experience in building Long-horizon AI Agents in production, Backend apps that scale to millions of users and frontend knowledge as well. Jaime Orts-Caroff Jaime Orts-Caroff I'm a Senior Android developer, open to work in various fields

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Frequently Asked Questions

What does a CORS error mean?

CORS (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing) is a browser security feature. It means your frontend (e.g., on Vercel) is trying to call an API on a different domain, and that API hasn't been configured to allow it.

I get a 500 error but don't know what's wrong. How do I find out?

A 500 error means the server crashed. The actual error is in the server logs, not in the browser. Check your hosting platform's logs.

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