What causes "webex: postMessage status %d" in chenhg5/cc-connect?

Inspect the status code: 404 → verify the bot is still a member of the room; 400 → validate roomID/personEmail format

webex: postMessage status %d

Error message

webex: postMessage status %d

What it means

The POST to /messages with roomId/markdown(/parentId) returned a status outside the accepted success set (200, 201). It means Webex refused to deliver the reply — typical causes are an invalid or archived roomId, an expired token (401), or rate limiting that survived doWithRetry's backoff.

Source

Thrown at platform/webex/client.go:217

			f.FileName = params["filename"]
		}
	}
	return f, nil
}

func (c *httpClient) PostMessage(ctx context.Context, roomID, parentID, markdown string) error {
	body := map[string]string{"roomId": roomID, "markdown": markdown}
	if parentID != "" {
		body["parentId"] = parentID
	}
	buf, _ := json.Marshal(body)
	resp, err := c.doWithRetry(ctx, http.MethodPost, c.base()+"/messages", buf, "application/json", "webex: postMessage")
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}
	defer func() { _ = resp.Body.Close() }()
	if resp.StatusCode != http.StatusOK && resp.StatusCode != http.StatusCreated {
		return fmt.Errorf("webex: postMessage status %d", resp.StatusCode)
	}
	return nil
}

func (c *httpClient) PostFile(ctx context.Context, roomID string, f *downloadedFile) error {
	var buf bytes.Buffer
	w := multipart.NewWriter(&buf)
	_ = w.WriteField("roomId", roomID)
	name := f.FileName
	if name == "" {
		name = "attachment"
	}
	part, err := w.CreateFormFile("files", name)
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}
	if _, err := part.Write(f.Data); err != nil {
		return err

View on GitHub (pinned to 4000b2338a)

Solutions

Inspect the status code: 404 → verify the bot is still a member of the room; 400 → validate roomID/personEmail format
Handle 429 by backing off and retrying (Webex rate limits per token)
Check that the room ID is the Webex room UUID (prefix Y2lzY29zcGFyazovL3...)
Refresh the bot token if 401 occurs repeatedly

Example fix

// before
client.PostMessage(ctx, roomIDFromUser, text) // roomID typed by user
// after
if !strings.HasPrefix(roomIDFromUser, "Y2lzY29zcGFyazovL3") {
    return fmt.Errorf("invalid room id")
}
client.PostMessage(ctx, roomIDFromUser, text)

Defensive patterns

Strategy: retry

Validate before calling

if roomID == "" || !strings.HasPrefix(roomID, "Y2lzY29zcGFyazovL3") { return errors.New("invalid room id") }

Try / catch

err := client.PostMessage(ctx, roomID, text)
if err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "status 429") { backoffAndRetry() }
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "status 404") { alertBotRemovedFromRoom() }
    return err
}

Prevention

Verify room IDs are Webex UUIDs before sending
Implement backoff for 429s on bursty traffic
Monitor bot membership in rooms
Rotate tokens before expiry

When it happens

Trigger: POST /messages returns 400 (bad roomID/personID/email format), 401 (bad token), 404 (room deleted or bot not in room), 429 (rate limit), or 5xx.

Common situations: Bot removed from the room after being mentioned; invalid personEmail in targeted messages; hitting Webex API rate limits during bursts; expired bot token.

Understand the failure class

Background: "API error: {status}" and "HTTP 401/403/404/429/5xx" errors: non-2xx HTTP responses explained — this error's family across 27 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of chenhg5/cc-connect@4000b2338a (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/5b929a04c4beedf0. Report an issue: GitHub.