name: UCSF API Errors
description: Error responses observed on UCSF's institution-operated public APIs.
generated: '2026-08-19'
method: probed
source:
  - https://api.profiles.ucsf.edu/json/v2/
  - https://profilesdeveloper.ucsf.edu/json-api
  - https://solr.idl.ucsf.edu/solr/ltdl3/query
apis:
  - name: UCSF Profiles JSON API
    x-operator: institution
    format: >-
      Errors are returned as a JSON object carrying a single human-readable `error` string.
      UCSF documents that callers should test for the presence of that key.
    errors:
      - status: 400
        condition: No identifier parameter supplied, or an invalid request.
        body_shape: '{ "error": "<human-readable message>" }'
        observed_example: >-
          You didn't specify an identifier type to look up! We were expecting to see one of the
          following: ?EPPN=... / ?EmployeeID=... / ?FNO=... / ?Person=... / ?ProfilesNodeID=... /
          ?ProfilesURLName=... / ?URL=...
        verified: '2026-08-19'
      - status: 404
        condition: Identifier is well formed but no matching person exists.
        body_shape: '{ "error": "<human-readable message>" }'
        documented: true
    gaps:
      - No machine-readable error code or type; only prose in a single string.
      - No RFC 7807 / RFC 9457 problem+json representation.
      - No documented rate-limit response — the one-second inter-call interval is a request, not enforced.
  - name: UCSF Industry Documents Library Solr API
    x-operator: institution
    format: >-
      Errors are raw Apache Solr error envelopes; UCSF adds no error contract of its own and its
      published API documentation does not describe failure modes at all.
    errors:
      - status: 403
        condition: Request for a Solr collection other than the published ltdl3 collection.
        body_shape: empty body
        verified: '2026-08-19'
      - status: 400
        condition: Malformed Solr query syntax.
        body_shape: Solr error envelope in the requested writer type.
        documented: false
    gaps:
      - Failure modes are undocumented; a consumer learns them by triggering them.
      - Error shape varies with the `wt` writer type rather than being stable.