Report bugs

This guide explains how to effectively report bugs and issues with the NewsCatcher APIs to ensure quick resolution and improve your experience.

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Before reporting

Before submitting a bug report, please take these steps to ensure efficient resolution:

1. Check documentation: Review the API Reference to verify you’re using parameters correctly and that you understand expected behaviors.

2. Verify API usage: Double-check that you’re using the correct headers, parameters, and payload formats according to our documentation.

3. Check status page: Visit our status page to see if there are any known issues or maintenance activities affecting the service.

4. Try our debugging tools: Use our Postman collections or the API playground in our documentation to verify if the issue can be reproduced with different tools.

5. Examine your code: Double-check your implementation to ensure the issue isn’t in your integration code.

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Where to report bugs

You can report bugs through the following official channels:

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How to report effectively

When reporting a bug, include the following information to help us identify and fix the issue quickly:

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1. Include the correlation ID

Here’s how to find it:

curl -i https://api.newscatcherapi.com/v3/search
# Look for: correlation-id: 2697cebe-6f5c-46e0-9b99-81e8abe55522

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2. What happened vs. what you expected

Briefly describe:

• What you were trying to do
• What actually happened
• What you expected to happen instead

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3. Request and response details

Provide information to reporoduce the issue:

• API endpoint and method (GET/POST)
• Request parameters or payload
• Error message and status code

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4. Bug report template

For convenience, you can use our template when reporting bugs:

## Bug Description
[Brief description of the issue]

## Correlation ID
correlation-id: [ID from response headers]

## Request Details
- Endpoint: [e.g., /v3/search]
- Method: [GET/POST]
- Parameters/Body: [Key details]

## Response
- Status Code: [e.g., 500]
- Error Message: [If applicable]

## Expected Behavior
[What you expected to happen]

## Environment
- Language/SDK: [e.g., Python 3.9, newscatcher-python 1.2.0]

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Common issues and solutions

Before reporting a bug, check if your issue matches one of these common scenarios:

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Using incorrect authentication header

We use x-api-token for authentication, not x-api-key:

GET /v3/search HTTP/1.1
Host: api.newscatcherapi.com
x-api-token: YOUR_API_KEY

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Malformed JSON payload causing 500 errors

If you receive a 500 Internal Server Error, check your request payload:

{
  "q": "bitcoin",
  "from_": "30d",
  "countries": ["US", "CA"]
}

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What happens after you report a bug?

1. Ticket creation: Your report is converted into a ticket in our internal tracking system.

2. Initial assessment: Our support team performs an initial assessment to determine severity and priority.

3. Investigation: Our engineering team uses the correlation ID to trace the issue through our logs and systems.

4. Status updates: We’ll keep you informed about the progress of your bug report through the same channel you used to report it.

5. Resolution: Once resolved, we’ll provide you with details about the fix and when you can expect it to be deployed.

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Issue priority and response times

When you report a bug, our support team assesses its priority based on urgency and impact according to our Service Support Policy. Understanding these priority levels can help you set appropriate response and resolution times expectations.

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How we determine priority

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Priority levels

When reporting a bug, you can suggest a priority level based on the criteria above, but the final determination will be made by our support team based on technical assessment.

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Debugging tools

We provide several tools to help you debug issues before reporting them:

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Related resources

• Error handling
• Request tracing with correlation IDs
• API error codes