Discord API error codes, explained one by one

In the JSON response body, not the HTTP status line. Every REST error from Discord contains a numeric code field and a message field, for example {"message": "Missing Permissions", "code": 50013}. Validation errors (50035) add an errors object that drills down to the field that was rejected. Most libraries expose this as error.code (discord.js: DiscordAPIError, discord.py: discord.HTTPException with .code). If your library swallows the body, log the raw response before giving up.

50001 Missing Access means the bot cannot see the resource at all: it is not in the guild, the channel is hidden from it by a permission overwrite, or the token lacks the OAuth2 scope. 50013 Missing Permissions means the bot can see the resource but lacks the specific permission bit for that action (Send Messages, Manage Roles, Kick Members and so on). Fix 50001 by granting View Channel or re-inviting; fix 50013 by granting the specific permission and checking role hierarchy.

The interaction expired before you acknowledged it. Discord gives you 3 seconds from the time the interaction is created to send an initial response. If your handler takes longer (a database call, an external API, a cold start) the token is discarded and any reply returns 10062. The fix is to defer immediately (response type 5, DEFERRED_CHANNEL_MESSAGE_WITH_SOURCE) and then edit the deferred reply within the 15-minute follow-up window.

Disallowed intent(s). Your IDENTIFY payload asked for a privileged intent (Server Members, Presence or Message Content) that is not switched on in the Developer Portal under Bot > Privileged Gateway Intents. Discord refuses the connection and your bot appears offline. Enable the toggle, or remove the intent from your code. Do not reconnect in a loop while this is unresolved; 4014 is marked as not reconnectable.

No. Close codes 4000-4014 are WebSocket close frames on the persistent gateway connection that delivers events to your bot. They never appear in REST responses and have no JSON body; you will see them in your library's disconnect handler. HTTP errors (400, 401, 403, 404, 429) come from REST calls such as sending a message, and carry a JSON body with a code and message.

Read retry_after from the JSON body (seconds, as a float) and wait at least that long before retrying the same route. Check the global field: if true, pause every request from the bot, not just that route. Use the X-RateLimit-Bucket header to group routes that share a limit, and X-RateLimit-Remaining to stop before you hit zero. Repeated 401, 403 and 429 responses count against the 10,000-per-10-minutes invalid request limit that leads to a temporary Cloudflare ban.

A field in your request violated a validation rule: an embed description over 4,096 characters, a content string over 2,000, more than 25 embed fields, a custom_id over 100 characters, an invalid snowflake, a wrong Content-Type, and so on. The response body contains an errors object whose nested keys name the exact field (for example embeds.0.description._errors). Log that object; it almost always tells you precisely what to change.

HTTP 429 (after retry_after), 502 and other 5xx, and gateway close codes marked reconnectable (4000, 4001, 4002, 4003, 4005, 4007, 4008, 4009). Do not auto-retry 40001, 50014 or gateway 4004 (bad token), 4010-4014 (sharding, API version, intents), 50013 and 50001 (permissions), or any 10xxx unknown-resource error. Retrying those produces identical failures and pushes you toward the invalid request ban.

You sent two initial responses to one interaction. After deferReply() in discord.js you must use editReply() or followUp(), never reply() again; in discord.py, after interaction.response.defer() use interaction.edit_original_response() or interaction.followup.send(). Also check for two processes running with the same token, both answering the same interaction. Each interaction accepts exactly one callback; everything after it goes through the webhook routes.

Requests that return 401, 403 or 429 count as invalid requests. An IP that produces 10,000 of them within 10 minutes is temporarily restricted from the API by Cloudflare, so every call returns an HTML error page instead of JSON until the ban expires. Retry loops around a bad token, a missing permission, or an unhandled 429 are the usual cause. Fix the underlying error instead of retrying it.