> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.kitefishai.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Error Handling

> Handle errors gracefully in the KiteFishAI Python SDK.

## Exception hierarchy

```
KiteFishAIError
├── AuthenticationError   # 401 — invalid or missing API key
├── RateLimitError        # 429 — too many requests
├── NotFoundError         # 404 — model or resource not found
└── APIError              # any other non-2xx response
```

## Basic pattern

```python theme={null}
import kitefishai

client = kitefishai.Client(api_key="kf-...")

try:
    response = client.chat.complete(
        model="kf-reasoning-10b",
        messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Hello"}],
    )
except kitefishai.AuthenticationError:
    print("Invalid API key — check KITEFISH_API_KEY")
except kitefishai.RateLimitError:
    print("Rate limit hit — back off and retry")
except kitefishai.NotFoundError as e:
    print(f"Model not found: {e}")
except kitefishai.APIError as e:
    print(f"API error {e.status_code}: {e.message}")
except kitefishai.KiteFishAIError as e:
    print(f"SDK error: {e}")
```

## Timeouts

The default timeout is 60 seconds. Increase it for long completions:

```python theme={null}
client = kitefishai.Client(
    api_key="kf-...",
    timeout=120.0,
)
```

If a request times out, a `KiteFishAIError` is raised with a descriptive message.

## Retries

The SDK automatically retries on timeout and network errors. Default is 2 retries:

```python theme={null}
client = kitefishai.Client(
    api_key="kf-...",
    max_retries=3,
)
```

To disable retries:

```python theme={null}
client = kitefishai.Client(api_key="kf-...", max_retries=0)
```

<Note>
  Retries are only attempted on network-level failures and timeouts — not on API errors like 401 or 429.
</Note>