@luckystack/api 0.1.0

package/docs/auth-flow.md

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+# Auth Flow
+
+> Last updated: 2026-05-20
+
+## Overview
+
+`@luckystack/api` does not own authentication — it consumes `getSession` from `@luckystack/login` and `validateRequest` from `@luckystack/core`. The handler's job is to translate the per-route `AuthProps` declaration into the right gate (require login + optional predicate checks) and to attribute every framework error tracker call that follows to the right user.
+
+Auth runs **early** in the pipeline (step 2 + step 6 of the 13-step lifecycle), and it runs **before** rate limit, method check, and input validation. The ordering is deliberate: unauthenticated callers should not be able to enumerate routes via 404 vs 405 vs 400 timing, or learn input shapes via `inputValidation.message`. A failing auth gate always returns a generic `auth.required` (or `auth.forbidden`) before any of those signals leak.
+
+The auth gate has two stages: a login check (cheap, boolean — does the session have a user ID?), then a predicate check (`validateRequest` evaluates `auth.additional[]`). Each can fail with a distinct error code + HTTP status. The HTTP transport also runs a defensive `if (!user)` check after the login gate to catch the edge case where `auth.login === false` was declared but downstream code still expects a user.
+
+## Lifecycle stages owning auth
+
+| Step | What happens |
+| --- | --- |
+| 2 (early) | `getSession(token)` → `setSentryUser(user)`. Read once per request; downstream code reads `user` as a closure variable. |
+| 6 | `checkApiAuth({ apiEntry, user, name, emitApiError })` (or the inline HTTP block) runs the login + predicate gate. Rejection short-circuits the pipeline. |
+| 4 (socket only) | `system/logout` shortcut. When the route normalizes to `system/logout`, the handler calls `logout(...)` directly and emits a success envelope — bypassing the runtime-map lookup, the auth gate, and every subsequent step. |
+
+## API Reference
+
+### `getSession(token)` (from `@luckystack/login`)
+
+Read at request time. Returns `Promise<SessionLayout | null>`. Reads from the active session adapter (Redis by default); applies sliding-expiration (dispatches `preSessionRefresh` / `postSessionRefresh` hooks).
+
+A `null` return means: no session token, an expired session, a deleted session, or a session-adapter outage. The handler treats all four identically — `user` is `null` for the rest of the request, and `auth.login: true` rejects with `auth.required`.
+
+### `setSentryUser(user)` (from `@luckystack/error-tracking`)
+
+Called immediately after `getSession`. Records `{ id, email }` (or `null` for unauthenticated requests) on every active error tracker so that any subsequent `captureException` / `captureMessage` (including from inside `main(...)`) is attributed to this user.
+
+### `checkApiAuth(...)` (internal helper, socket transport)
+
+**Signature**:
+
+```ts
+const checkApiAuth = (params: {
+  apiEntry: RuntimeApiEntry;
+  user: SessionLayout | null;
+  name: string;            // The pre-normalization route name; used for log context.
+  emitApiError: EmitApiError;
+}): boolean;
+```
+
+**Behavior**:
+
+1. If `apiEntry.auth.login === true` and `user?.id` is missing, emit `auth.required` + `401`. Return `false`.
+2. Otherwise, run `validateRequest({ auth: apiEntry.auth, user: user! })`.
+3. If the result is `{ status: 'error', errorCode, errorParams, httpStatus }`, emit it (defaulting to `auth.forbidden` + `403` when fields are missing). Return `false`.
+4. Otherwise, return `true`.
+
+The function logs auth failures at `warn` level when `logging.devLogs` is on.
+
+### Inline auth block in `handleHttpApiRequest`
+
+The HTTP transport inlines the same logic but adds a defensive `if (!user)` check between the login gate and the predicate gate:
+
+```ts
+if (auth.login && !user?.id) {
+  return buildNetworkError({ response: { status: 'error', errorCode: 'auth.required' }, fallbackHttpStatus: 401 });
+}
+
+if (!user) {
+  return buildNetworkError({ response: { status: 'error', errorCode: 'auth.forbidden' }, fallbackHttpStatus: 403 });
+}
+```
+
+This catches the configuration drift where a route declared `auth.login: false` but the predicate evaluator (`validateRequest`) still expects a non-null user (its parameter type is `BaseSessionLayout`, not `BaseSessionLayout | null`). In practice this only matters if you opt out of login but still declare `auth.additional[]` checks — in that case, `validateRequest` would dereference `null`. The guard short-circuits with `auth.forbidden` first.
+
+### `validateRequest({ auth, user })` (from `@luckystack/core`)
+
+The predicate evaluator.
+
+**Signature**:
+
+```ts
+function validateRequest(params: {
+  auth: AuthProps;
+  user: BaseSessionLayout;
+}): {
+  status: 'success' | 'error';
+  errorCode?: string;
+  errorParams?: { key: string; value: string | number | boolean }[];
+  httpStatus?: number;
+};
+```
+
+**Behavior**: walks `auth.additional[]` (if present). Each entry references a `key` on the session object and adds up to four AND'd constraints:
+
+| Constraint | Semantics |
+| --- | --- |
+| `nullish: true` | `user[key]` must be `null` or `undefined`. |
+| `nullish: false` | `user[key]` must NOT be `null` or `undefined`. |
+| `type: 'string' \| 'number' \| 'boolean'` | `typeof user[key]` must match. Skipped if `user[key]` is null/undefined. |
+| `value: <x>` | Strict equality `user[key] === x`. Use `'value' in condition` semantics: omit the key entirely if you don't want the check (setting `value: undefined` explicitly means "must be undefined"). |
+| `mustBeFalsy: true` | `isFalsy(user[key])`. |
+| `mustBeFalsy: false` | `!isFalsy(user[key])`. |
+
+Multiple constraints on a single entry are AND'd. Multiple entries in the array are also AND'd — every entry must pass.
+
+**Errors**:
+
+| Condition | Returns |
+| --- | --- |
+| `condition.key` does not exist on the session object | `{ errorCode: 'auth.invalidCondition', errorParams: [{ key: 'key', value: <missingKey> }], httpStatus: 500 }`. This is a setup error, not a runtime auth fail — a route asked for a session field the project's `SessionLayout` does not declare. |
+| Any constraint fails | `{ errorCode: 'auth.forbidden', errorParams: [{ key: 'key', value: <failingKey> }], httpStatus: 403 }`. |
+| All constraints pass | `{ status: 'success' }`. |
+
+### `logout({ token, socket, userId })` (from `@luckystack/login`)
+
+Only reachable via the `system/logout` socket shortcut. Calls `deleteSession(token)` (which dispatches `preSessionDelete` → adapter delete + active-user untrack → `postSessionDelete`), emits `socketEventNames.logout` to the socket, and leaves the socket room.
+
+The shortcut bypasses every later step: runtime-map lookup, auth gate, rate limit, validation, hooks (no `preApiExecute` / `postApiExecute`), execution, and respond hooks. Logout is a built-in, not a user-defined route.
+
+## `AuthProps` shape
+
+```ts
+interface AuthProps {
+  /** If true, user must have a valid session with an ID. */
+  login: boolean;
+
+  /** Additional validation rules for session properties. */
+  additional?: {
+    key: keyof BaseSessionLayout;   // The session field to inspect (e.g. 'admin').
+    value?: unknown;                // Strict equality.
+    type?: 'string' | 'number' | 'boolean';
+    nullish?: boolean;
+    mustBeFalsy?: boolean;
+  }[];
+}
+```
+
+Project code typically declares `AuthProps` like:
+
+```ts
+// src/admin/_api/banUser_v1.ts
+export const auth: AuthProps = {
+  login: true,
+  additional: [
+    { key: 'admin', value: true },
+  ],
+};
+```
+
+`additional[].key` is constrained by `keyof BaseSessionLayout` — the project's `SessionLayout` extends `BaseSessionLayout`, so any field the project adds (e.g. `admin: boolean`, `organizationId: string`) is type-checkable. Referencing a key the session does not declare is a TypeScript error at compile time and a `500` `auth.invalidCondition` at runtime.
+
+## Error codes
+
+| Code | When | HTTP status |
+| --- | --- | --- |
+| `auth.required` | `auth.login === true` and `user?.id` is missing. | 401 |
+| `auth.forbidden` | `auth.additional[]` predicate rejects, or the HTTP-transport defensive `if (!user)` fires. | 403 |
+| `auth.invalidCondition` | `auth.additional[].key` is not present on the session shape. Setup error. | 500 |
+| Custom `errorCode` from `validateRequest` | Custom predicate (none ship by default) overrides the fallback. | Custom `httpStatus`, default 403. |
+
+All four codes go through `normalizeErrorResponse` so the localized normalizer can render a translated message (see [`./error-handling.md`](./error-handling.md)).
+
+## Ordering: why auth runs before rate limit
+
+Auth is step 6 of 13. Rate limit is step 7. The comment in `handleApiRequest.ts` puts it bluntly:
+
+```ts
+//? Auth → rate-limit → validate → execute → respond.
+//? Auth runs before validate so unauthenticated probes can't enumerate
+//? routes or learn input shape from `inputValidation.message`.
+```
+
+In practice this means:
+
+- An anonymous caller hitting a `login: true` route gets `auth.required` for every request, regardless of the route's input shape, regardless of whether the route exists.
+- An anonymous caller hitting a route that does **not** exist gets the SAME `auth.required` (because the route lookup is step 5, before auth at step 6, but the runtime map check returns `api.notFound` early — see edge case below).
+
+Wait — re-reading the pipeline: step 5 (`getRuntimeApiMaps + route lookup`) DOES run before auth. That is intentional: route lookup is needed to read `apiEntry.auth`. An unknown route returns `api.notFound` to the anonymous caller. That is a known leak (route names are enumerable by an anonymous caller); deliberate, since route names are not secret (the client bundle ships them anyway). The defense is at the input-shape and `auth.forbidden` boundary, where predicate details and validation messages would otherwise leak.
+
+## Authorization extension points
+
+The auth gate's predicate engine is intentionally small. Two ways to add custom behavior:
+
+1. **Session-field predicates via `auth.additional[]`.** Add fields to your project's `SessionLayout` (via `BaseSessionLayout` module augmentation) and reference them by key. Examples: `admin`, `organizationId`, `plan`, `verified`. The session is populated by `@luckystack/login`'s adapter system — see `@luckystack/login` docs.
+
+2. **Hook-based auth via `preApiExecute`.** Register a hook that inspects `user` + `routeName` + `data` and returns a stop signal:
+
+   ```ts
+   registerHook('preApiExecute', async ({ routeName, user, data }) => {
+     if (routeName.startsWith('admin/') && !user?.admin) {
+       return { stop: true, errorCode: 'auth.forbidden', httpStatus: 403 };
+     }
+   });
+   ```
+
+   `preApiExecute` runs after the per-route `AuthProps` gate, so use it for cross-cutting rules (admin gate across many routes, organization scoping, feature flags) rather than per-route checks.
+
+For more complex authorization (RBAC, per-resource ACLs), keep the framework gate at the coarse-grained level (`login: true`, `admin: true`) and run fine-grained checks inside `main(...)`.
+
+## Hooks dispatched
+
+The auth gate itself does not dispatch hooks. Adjacent hooks that observe auth state:
+
+| Hook | When | Payload |
+| --- | --- | --- |
+| `preSessionRefresh` / `postSessionRefresh` | Inside `getSession`, on every authenticated request | `{ token, oldTtl, newTtl }`. `preSessionRefresh` can stop the TTL extend. |
+| `preApiExecute` | After the `AuthProps` gate, before `main(...)` | `{ routeName, data, user }`. Can stop with `{ errorCode, httpStatus }` for custom authorization. |
+
+See [`./api-request-lifecycle.md`](./api-request-lifecycle.md) for the full hook order.
+
+## Config keys
+
+This package does not read any auth-specific config. `@luckystack/login` owns session policy:
+
+- `session.expiryDays` (TTL for `getSession` sliding-extend).
+- `session.perUser`, `session.maxConcurrentPerUser`, `session.onConflict` (single-session enforcement on new login).
+- `auth.passwordPolicy.*` (credentials register / change paths).
+- `auth.forgotPassword` (framework vs custom vs disabled).
+
+Read those in `@luckystack/login/CLAUDE.md`.
+
+## Edge cases
+
+- **`user.id` is `0` or `''`.** The check is `!user?.id` — both falsy values reject with `auth.required`. Session adapters should never write a falsy ID; if you customize the user adapter, ensure IDs are truthy.
+- **`auth.login: false` + `auth.additional[]` declared.** The login gate passes (no ID required), but the predicate engine receives a possibly-null user. The socket transport asserts `user!` and relies on `validateRequest`'s nullish guards (constraints are skipped when `user[key]` is null/undefined). The HTTP transport adds the defensive `if (!user)` short-circuit. Don't rely on this combination — declare `login: true` if you need session field checks.
+- **Session deleted between `getSession` and `validateRequest`.** Not possible — `user` is captured once at step 2 and used as a closure. Subsequent revocations affect later requests, not this one.
+- **`system/logout` race with concurrent requests on the same socket.** `logout` runs synchronously inside the API handler; concurrent requests on the same socket may have already resolved `getSession` before the logout completes. Those requests see a still-valid session. The next request to enter step 2 sees the deleted session.
+- **OAuth callback or login HTTP routes.** Those live in `@luckystack/server`'s HTTP route table (`/auth/callback/<provider>`, `/auth/api/credentials`), not in `/api/*`. The auth gate documented here is for `/api/*` traffic only. Login endpoints have their own session-minting flow inside `@luckystack/login`.
+
+## Related
+
+- API request lifecycle: [`./api-request-lifecycle.md`](./api-request-lifecycle.md)
+- Error handling: [`./error-handling.md`](./error-handling.md)
+- Session management: `@luckystack/login/docs/session-management.md`
+- OAuth providers: `@luckystack/login/docs/oauth-providers.md`
+- Architecture: [`/docs/ARCHITECTURE_AUTH.md`](../../../docs/ARCHITECTURE_AUTH.md), [`/docs/ARCHITECTURE_SESSION.md`](../../../docs/ARCHITECTURE_SESSION.md)

package/docs/error-handling.md

@@ -0,0 +1,247 @@
+# Error Handling
+
+> Last updated: 2026-05-20
+
+## Overview
+
+`@luckystack/api` produces a strict, two-shape response envelope. Every code path through the handler — malformed input, auth failure, rate-limit rejection, handler throw, handler return — ends in either `{ status: 'success', ... }` or `{ status: 'error', errorCode, errorParams?, httpStatus, message }`. The transformation from raw failure to wire envelope flows through three layers:
+
+1. **`tryCatch`** wraps the handler's `main(...)` call. Errors are captured (auto-forwarded to Sentry / any registered tracker with context), and the tuple `[error, result]` is returned to the pipeline. Raw exceptions never reach the client.
+2. **`buildApiResponseEnvelope`** (socket) / **`buildNetworkError`** (HTTP) maps the raw handler result to a wire envelope, inferring `httpStatus` via `defaultHttpStatusForResponse` and routing the error fields through `normalizeErrorResponse`.
+3. **`normalizeErrorResponse`** renders the localized `message` field from the `errorCode` + `errorParams`, using the project-registered translate function. Locale is extracted in priority order: `x-language` header → `accept-language` header → `user.language`.
+
+This means: a handler can return `{ status: 'error', errorCode: 'organization.notFound', errorParams: [{ key: 'id', value: orgId }] }` and the framework renders `Organization "abc123" not found` (or its translation) automatically. Business-logic errors and framework-emitted errors share the same envelope shape.
+
+Logging is uniform: every handler exception is logged via `getLogger().error(...)` with the route name and transport in the context tag, plus a stack via `tryCatch`'s capture. Dev-only warn logs are gated by `logging.devLogs`.
+
+## API Reference
+
+### `executeApiHandler` (internal, socket transport)
+
+**Signature**:
+
+```ts
+const executeApiHandler = async (params: {
+  apiEntry: RuntimeApiEntry;
+  normalizedData: Record<string, unknown>;
+  user: SessionLayout | null;
+  functionsObject: Record<string, unknown>;
+  resolvedName: string;
+  name: string;
+  emitStream: (payload?: ApiStreamPayload) => void;
+}): Promise<{
+  error: Error | null;
+  result: RuntimeApiResponse | undefined;
+  durationMs: number;
+}>;
+```
+
+**Behavior**:
+
+- Starts a Sentry span via `startSpan(name, 'api.request')`. The HTTP variant uses `'api.request.http'`.
+- Calls `apiEntry.main({ data, user, functions, stream })` inside `tryCatch(..., undefined, { handler, api, userId, transport })`.
+- The third argument to `tryCatch` is the auto-capture context — recorded on the registered error tracker alongside the exception.
+- `span.end()` is called unconditionally after `main` resolves or rejects.
+- Returns `{ error, result, durationMs }`. Caller decides what to do with each.
+
+The HTTP transport has no extracted helper — the same flow is inlined.
+
+### `tryCatch` (re-exported from `@luckystack/core`)
+
+**Signature** (paraphrased):
+
+```ts
+async function tryCatch<T>(
+  fn: () => Promise<T>,
+  fallback?: T,
+  captureContext?: Record<string, unknown>,
+): Promise<[Error | null, T | null]>;
+```
+
+**Behavior**: invokes `fn`; on throw, captures the error via `captureExceptionAcrossTrackers(error, captureContext)`, and returns `[error, null]`. On success, returns `[null, result]`. Used as the universal error boundary across the framework — never use raw `try / catch`.
+
+### `buildApiResponseEnvelope` (internal, socket transport)
+
+**Signature**:
+
+```ts
+const buildApiResponseEnvelope = (params: {
+  resolvedName: string;
+  error: Error | null;
+  result: RuntimeApiResponse | undefined;
+  preferredLocale: string | undefined;
+  user: SessionLayout | null;
+}): { status: 'success' | 'error'; httpStatus?: number; [key: string]: unknown };
+```
+
+**Behavior**:
+
+| Condition | Returns |
+| --- | --- |
+| `error` is non-null | Localized error envelope with `errorCode: 'api.internalServerError'`, `httpStatus: 500`. |
+| `result` is `null` or `undefined` | Localized error envelope with `errorCode: 'api.emptyResponse'`, `httpStatus: 500`. |
+| `result.status` is neither `'success'` nor `'error'` | Localized error envelope with `errorCode: 'api.invalidResponseStatus'`, `httpStatus: 500`. |
+| `result.status === 'error'` | Pass through `normalizeErrorResponse({ response: result, ..., fallbackHttpStatus: defaultHttpStatusForResponse(...) })`. |
+| `result.status === 'success'` | Spread `result`, set `httpStatus` via `defaultHttpStatusForResponse({ status: 'success', explicitHttpStatus: result.httpStatus })`. |
+
+All four error branches and the success branch produce a fully-formed envelope ready to emit.
+
+### `buildNetworkError` (internal closure in `handleHttpApiRequest`)
+
+The HTTP-side equivalent. Same shape as the socket's localized-error path, but the return is typed `ApiNetworkResponse` (which has a non-optional `httpStatus: number`). Used at every HTTP early-return.
+
+### `normalizeErrorResponse` (re-exported from `@luckystack/core`)
+
+**Signature**:
+
+```ts
+function normalizeErrorResponse(params: {
+  response: { status: 'error'; errorCode?: string; errorParams?: [...]; httpStatus?: number; message?: string };
+  preferredLocale?: string | null;
+  userLanguage?: string | null;
+  fallbackHttpStatus?: number;
+}): {
+  status: 'error';
+  httpStatus: number;
+  errorCode: string;
+  errorParams?: [...];
+  message: string;
+};
+```
+
+**Behavior**:
+
+- Dispatches the `preErrorNormalize` sync hook so consumers can remap `errorCode` (e.g. rewrite `auth.required` → `session.expired`).
+- Resolves the locale: `preferredLocale ?? userLanguage ?? defaultLanguage`.
+- Calls the registered localized normalizer (set by `registerLocalizedNormalizer` from the project's `server/utils/responseNormalizer.ts`) with the `errorCode` + `errorParams` to render `message`.
+- Falls back to the raw `errorCode` string when no normalizer is registered or the key is missing from the locale.
+- Sets `httpStatus` to `response.httpStatus ?? fallbackHttpStatus ?? 500`.
+- Dispatches the `postErrorNormalize` sync hook so consumers can rewrite the final shape (e.g. strip stack details, add a correlation ID).
+- Returns the localized envelope.
+
+### `defaultHttpStatusForResponse` (re-exported from `@luckystack/core`)
+
+**Signature**:
+
+```ts
+function defaultHttpStatusForResponse(params: {
+  status: 'success' | 'error';
+  explicitHttpStatus?: number;
+}): number;
+```
+
+**Behavior**: returns `explicitHttpStatus` when present; otherwise `200` for `'success'` and `500` for `'error'`. The handler's per-response `httpStatus` (set inside `main`) always wins.
+
+### `setSentryUser` + `startSpan` (from `@luckystack/error-tracking`)
+
+Called early in each handler:
+
+- `setSentryUser({ id, email })` attributes every subsequent capture (within this request's call stack) to the user. Cleared with `setSentryUser(null)` between requests by virtue of being called per-request.
+- `startSpan(name, op)` opens a tracing span. The returned object exposes `.end()` (sometimes — depends on adapter). Both transports defensively call `span?.end?.()` to support adapters that don't implement spans.
+
+## Framework-emitted error codes
+
+| Code | Origin | HTTP status | Notes |
+| --- | --- | --- | --- |
+| `api.invalidRequest` | `validateApiMessage` (socket) | 400 | Malformed socket envelope. |
+| `api.invalidName` | HTTP entry validation | 400 | `name` missing or not a string. |
+| `api.invalidDataObject` | HTTP entry validation | 400 | `data` missing, null, or not an object. |
+| `routing.invalidServiceRouteName` | `parseTransportRouteName` | 400 | Route name does not match `api/<page>/<name>/v<N>`. `errorParams[0].value` echoes the original name. |
+| `api.notFound` | runtime map lookup | 404 | Route not registered. `errorParams[0].value` echoes the name. |
+| `auth.required` | `checkApiAuth` | 401 | `auth.login: true` and no session. |
+| `auth.forbidden` | `validateRequest` predicate | 403 | Predicate rejected. May carry custom `errorCode` from a future custom validator. |
+| `auth.invalidCondition` | `validateRequest` | 500 | `auth.additional[].key` is not on the session shape. Setup error. |
+| `api.rateLimitExceeded` | `applyApiRateLimits` | 429 | `errorParams[0]` is `{ key: 'seconds', value: resetIn }`. |
+| `api.methodNotAllowed` | HTTP method check | 405 | `errorParams[0]` is `{ key: 'method', value: expectedMethod }`. |
+| `api.invalidInputType` | `validateInputByType` | 400 | `errorParams[0]` is `{ key: 'message', value: <validator message> }`. |
+| `api.internalServerError` | `tryCatch` caught a throw | 500 | The original exception is on the registered tracker; not in the wire envelope. |
+| `api.emptyResponse` | `buildApiResponseEnvelope` | 500 | Handler returned `null` or `undefined`. |
+| `api.invalidResponseStatus` | `buildApiResponseEnvelope` / `isRuntimeApiResult` | 500 | Handler returned an object whose `status` is not `'success'` / `'error'`. |
+
+Consumer-emitted error codes (returned from `main(...)`) flow through `normalizeErrorResponse` unchanged. Consumers should register translations for the framework codes above plus their own.
+
+## Stop signals
+
+`preApiExecute` and `preApiRespond` hook handlers may return a `HookStopSignal`:
+
+```ts
+return { stop: true, errorCode: 'organization.disabled', httpStatus: 403 };
+```
+
+When the dispatcher sees a stop signal:
+
+- `preApiExecute`: the handler short-circuits before `main(...)` runs. The envelope is built as `normalizeErrorResponse({ response: { errorCode }, fallbackHttpStatus: signal.httpStatus ?? 403 })`.
+- `preApiRespond`: the already-built envelope is discarded; a fresh localized envelope is built from the signal. `transformApiResponse` and `postApiRespond` still fire on the replacement.
+
+Other lifecycle hooks (`preApiValidate`, `postApiValidate`, `postApiExecute`, `transformApiResponse`, `postApiRespond`) do not honor stop signals — they are pre-validation observation, post-execution observation, or pure mutation slots.
+
+## Locale extraction
+
+Order of precedence for the `preferredLocale` argument that flows into `normalizeErrorResponse`:
+
+1. **Socket transport**: `extractLanguageFromHeader(socket.handshake.headers['x-language'])` → `extractLanguageFromHeader(socket.handshake.headers['accept-language'])`.
+2. **HTTP transport**: `extractLanguageFromHeader(params.xLanguageHeader)` → `extractLanguageFromHeader(params.acceptLanguageHeader)`. The HTTP listener in `@luckystack/server` is responsible for passing these headers in.
+3. **Fallback**: `user.language` (from the session) when both headers are absent.
+4. **Final fallback**: `defaultLanguage` from `projectConfig` when there is no session.
+
+`extractLanguageFromHeader` returns the first valid locale token (`en`, `nl`, `de`, `fr`) from a possibly multi-value header, or `undefined`. The localized normalizer also implements its own fallback chain.
+
+## Logging
+
+Every error path logs at the appropriate level:
+
+| Level | When |
+| --- | --- |
+| `getLogger().debug(...)` | Successful route completion, when `logging.devLogs` is on. |
+| `getLogger().warn(...)` | Auth failures, rate-limit exceeded, method mismatch, validation failures, empty returns, malformed envelopes. All gated by `logging.devLogs`. |
+| `getLogger().error(...)` | Handler exceptions caught by `tryCatch`. Always logged regardless of `devLogs`. Carries `{ route, transport }` context. |
+
+The error tracker (registered via `@luckystack/error-tracking`) receives every `tryCatch` capture automatically with the context tags (`handler`, `api`, `userId`, `transport`).
+
+## What is NOT handled here
+
+- **Business-logic errors inside `main(...)`.** Routes return `{ status: 'error', errorCode: '...' }` directly. The envelope normalizer renders them — no thrown exception, no Sentry capture. This is by design: business outcomes (validation failures in domain code, "user already exists") are not "errors" in the tracking sense.
+- **Localization of `errorCode` strings.** That is the consumer's responsibility — `registerLocalizedNormalizer` from the project's `server/utils/responseNormalizer.ts` provides the translate function backed by JSON locale files in `src/_locales/`.
+- **Frontend error rendering.** The client's `apiRequest` returns the normalized envelope. UI code consumes `result.errorCode` + `result.message` and decides how to render (toast via `notify`, inline form error, redirect).
+- **Hook handler errors.** Failures inside a `dispatchHook` handler are isolated by the hook bus — they log via `getLogger()` + the tracker but do not affect the main pipeline.
+
+## Hooks dispatched
+
+The error-handling layer fires:
+
+| Hook | Stoppable | Payload |
+| --- | --- | --- |
+| `preApiRespond` | yes (becomes localized error) | `{ routeName, user, response }` — last chance to mutate or replace the envelope. |
+| `transformApiResponse` | no (mutate `response`) | `{ routeName, user, response }` — pure mutation slot. |
+| `postApiRespond` | no | `{ routeName, user, response }` — observation after emit. |
+| `preErrorNormalize` | no (sync; mutate `response`) | `{ response: ErrorResponseInput }` — fires inside `normalizeErrorResponse`. |
+| `postErrorNormalize` | no (sync; mutate `normalized`) | `{ normalized: NormalizedErrorResponse }` — fires before `normalizeErrorResponse` returns. |
+
+See [`./api-request-lifecycle.md`](./api-request-lifecycle.md) for the full hook order and `@luckystack/core/docs/hooks.md` for hook bus semantics.
+
+## Config keys
+
+| Key | Effect |
+| --- | --- |
+| `logging.devLogs` | Gates verbose per-request `debug` / `warn` logs. Handler-exception `error` logs always emit. |
+| `defaultLanguage` | Final fallback locale for `normalizeErrorResponse`. |
+| (registered via DI) | The localized normalizer is registered by the project's boot code. Without one, error responses still carry `errorCode` but `message` falls back to the raw key. |
+
+## Edge cases
+
+- **Handler returns `{ status: 'error' }` with no `errorCode`.** `normalizeErrorResponse` treats it as having a missing key — the rendered `message` falls back to the raw value (an empty string or the key literal). Always include `errorCode`.
+- **Handler returns `httpStatus: 0` or a non-number.** `defaultHttpStatusForResponse` only treats `typeof === 'number'` as explicit; non-numbers fall back to 200/500 per the success/error branch.
+- **Stop signal with no `httpStatus`.** Falls back to `403` for both `preApiExecute` and `preApiRespond` stops.
+- **`tryCatch` caught a non-Error throw.** The framework wraps non-Error throws into an Error before capture; the client always gets `api.internalServerError`. The tracker receives the wrapped Error with the original `cause`.
+- **`preApiRespond` stop on an already-error envelope.** The original error envelope is replaced by the stop signal's error envelope. Use this pattern to remap error codes (`auth.required` → `session.expired`) — but prefer the sync `preErrorNormalize` hook for code remapping since it runs in a single place.
+- **HTTP request with no `requesterIp` and no token.** The per-route bucket keys on `ip:anonymous:...` (per route) and `ip:unknown:...` (global). All such requests share these buckets. Front your server with a load balancer that always sets `X-Forwarded-For`.
+
+## Related
+
+- API request lifecycle: [`./api-request-lifecycle.md`](./api-request-lifecycle.md)
+- Auth flow: [`./auth-flow.md`](./auth-flow.md)
+- Rate limiting: [`./rate-limiting.md`](./rate-limiting.md)
+- Generated types: [`./generated-types.md`](./generated-types.md)
+- Architecture: [`/docs/ARCHITECTURE_API.md`](../../../docs/ARCHITECTURE_API.md) (see "Error Code Rules", "Framework-emitted error codes", "Response Contract")
+- Hooks: `@luckystack/core/docs/hooks.md`
+- Error-tracker registry: `@luckystack/core/docs/error-tracker-registry.md`