Use Claude to Write Centralised API Error Handling Middleware

Inconsistent API error responses — different shapes for validation errors, auth failures, and server errors — make every frontend integration harder than it needs to be. Let Claude write centralised middleware to enforce a single contract.

Ask Claude: "Write Express middleware that catches all errors and returns consistent
JSON responses. Handle validation errors, auth failures, not-found errors, and
unexpected exceptions. Log unexpected errors with context, but never leak stack
traces to clients."

Claude generates middleware covering the full error surface — Zod/Joi validation failures, JWT auth errors, database constraint violations, and unhandled exceptions — all formatted to the same response shape:

// Every error returns this shape
{
  "error": {
    "code": "VALIDATION_ERROR",
    "message": "The request data is invalid.",
    "details": [
      { "field": "email", "message": "Must be a valid email address" }
    ]
  }
}

For Laravel, ask Claude to update your app/Exceptions/Handler.php render method to normalise all exceptions — including third-party ones — into your API's contract with appropriate HTTP status codes:

// Claude maps exception types to consistent JSON shapes
public function render($request, Throwable $e): Response
{
    if ($request->expectsJson()) {
        return $this->renderApiException($e);
    }
    return parent::render($request, $e);
}

Claude will also write tests that assert each error type returns the correct HTTP status and shape — so the contract doesn't drift over time.

Consistent error responses make every API integration easier — and they're the mark of a backend built with care.