eyaltoledano/claude-task-master · error · VertexApiError

API error (${statusCode}): ${errorMessage}

Error message

API error (${statusCode}): ${errorMessage}

What it means

Any Vertex AI HTTP error status other than 401/403/400 (e.g. 404, 429, 500, 503) is wrapped in VertexApiError carrying the status code. This is the generic remote-API failure path in handleError. The status code is passed as a second argument and the Google message is embedded.

Source

Thrown at src/ai-providers/google-vertex.js:192

			error.name === 'VertexAuthError' ||
			error.name === 'VertexConfigError' ||
			error.name === 'VertexApiError'
		) {
			throw error;
		}

		// Handle network/API errors
		if (error.response) {
			const statusCode = error.response.status;
			const errorMessage = error.response.data?.error?.message || error.message;

			// Categorize by status code
			if (statusCode === 401 || statusCode === 403) {
				throw new VertexAuthError(`Authentication failed: ${errorMessage}`);
			} else if (statusCode === 400) {
				throw new VertexConfigError(`Invalid request: ${errorMessage}`);
			} else {
				throw new VertexApiError(
					`API error (${statusCode}): ${errorMessage}`,
					statusCode
				);
			}
		}

		// Generic error handling
		throw new Error(`Vertex AI ${operation} failed: ${error.message}`);
	}
}

View on GitHub (pinned to c0c98d367c)

Solutions

1. Inspect the wrapped statusCode to branch handling: 429 → back off and retry; 5xx → retry later; 404 → fix model/region.
2. For 429, add exponential backoff and check project quotas in the Google Cloud console.
3. Check the Google Cloud status dashboard for outages if 5xx persists.
4. For 404, verify endpoint URL components (project, location, publisher, model).

Example fix

// before: immediate failure on 429
// after: retry with backoff
// try { await client.generate(...) } catch (e) {
//   if (e instanceof VertexApiError && e.statusCode === 429) return retryWithBackoff(fn, 5);
//   throw e;
// }

function isVertexApiError(e) {
  return e instanceof Error && /^API error \(\d+\):/.test(e.message);
}
function getStatusCode(e) {
  const m = /^API error \((\d+)\):/.exec(e?.message || '');
  return m ? Number(m[1]) : null;
}

try {
  return await call();
} catch (e) {
  const code = getStatusCode(e);
  if (code === 429 || code >= 500) return retryWithBackoff(call, { retries: 5, baseMs: 500 });
  if (code === 404) console.error('Check model/region endpoint:', e.message);
  throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: getClient()/API call gets an HTTP error response whose status is not 401/403/400; handleError falls into the else branch.

Common situations: 429 rate limiting/quota exceeded, 5xx Google-side outages, 404 for nonexistent endpoints/models, region-wide capacity issues.

Related errors

• POLL_FAILED
• ${this.name} API error during ${operation}: ${errorMessage}
• Authentication failed: ${errorMessage}
• Invalid request: ${errorMessage}
• Vertex AI ${operation} failed: ${error.message}

AI-assisted analysis of eyaltoledano/claude-task-master@c0c98d367c (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b7c21b9f35d05ce5. Report an issue: GitHub.