What causes "{error.get('code', '')} -> {error.get('message', '')}" in OpenBB-finance/OpenBB?

Set and verify congress_gov_api_key.

OpenBB-finance/OpenBB · error · UnauthorizedError

{error.get('code', '')} -> {error.get('message', '')}

Error message

{error.get('code', '')} -> {error.get('message', '')}

What it means

UnauthorizedError from the bills listing fetcher when the congress.gov error payload's code contains 'API_KEY' — the request was rejected for missing/invalid/quota-exhausted credentials. The code and message from the API are embedded in the exception text.

Source

Thrown at openbb_platform/providers/congress_gov/openbb_congress_gov/models/congress_bills.py:301

            + (
                f"&toDateTime={query.end_date.strftime('%Y-%m-%d') + 'T23:59:59Z'}"
                if query.end_date
                else ""
            )
        )
        url += (
            f"{'?' if '?' not in url else '&'}"
            + f"limit={query.limit if query.limit is not None else '100'}"
            + (f"&offset={query.offset if query.offset else '0'}")
            + f"&sort=updateDate+{query.sort_by}"
            + f"&format=json&api_key={api_key}"
        )

        try:
            response = await amake_request(url=url)
            if isinstance(response, dict) and (error := response.get("error", {})):
                if "API_KEY" in error.get("code", ""):
                    raise UnauthorizedError(
                        f"{error.get('code', '')} -> {error.get('message', '')}"
                    )
                raise OpenBBError(
                    f"{error.get('code', '')} -> {error.get('message', '')}"
                )

        except Exception as e:
            # Handle exceptions
            raise OpenBBError(e) from e

        return response.get("bills", [])  # type: ignore

    @staticmethod
    def transform_data(
        query: CongressBillsQueryParams, data: list, **kwargs: Any
    ) -> list[CongressBillsData]:
        """Transform raw data into CongressBillsData models."""
        transformed_data: list[CongressBillsData] = []

View on GitHub (pinned to 3e071fcc2c)

Solutions

Set and verify congress_gov_api_key.
Test the key with a direct API call.
Throttle and cache to respect the hourly quota.

Example fix

# before
obb.congress.bills(congress=119)

# after
obb.account.credentials.set('congress_gov_api_key', KEY)
obb.congress.bills(congress=119)

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

assert obb.account.credentials.get('congress_gov_api_key'), 'congress_gov_api_key required'

Try / catch

from openbb_core.provider.utils.errors import UnauthorizedError

try:
    res = obb.congress.bills(congress=119)
except UnauthorizedError:
    raise SystemExit('configure congress_gov_api_key') from None

Prevention

Preflight credentials before batch runs.
One key per workload with per-workload throttling.
Treat UnauthorizedError as an operational alert, not a code defect.

When it happens

Trigger: Calling obb.congress.bills without a working congress_gov_api_key; suspended key after rate-limit breaches; credential set only in a different profile/environment.

Common situations: Fresh setups, CI secrets not exported, multi-process jobs sharing a key past 5,000 req/hour.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of OpenBB-finance/OpenBB@3e071fcc2c (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/577e6dabfece072f. Report an issue: GitHub.