🤖 $250 Community Challenge – Agent Mode Prompts | 5 days

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Using Postman Agent Mode to Add Error Handling to Medicotest API

The Prompt I Ran

Prompt: “Add detailed 4xx and 5xx error responses to each endpoint in this collection (Get clear and consistent error responses for your API endpoints)”

What I Ran It On

Project Context: I’m building Medicotest - a healthcare platform where patients in India (especially Punjab) can upload medical reports (blood tests, X-rays, ultrasounds) and receive:

  • AI-powered health diagnoses
  • Affordable doctor recommendations (₹400-₹1500 consultation fees)
  • Treatment plans with medicine costs
  • Location-based doctor search
  • Appointment booking

The API has 37 endpoints across 7 categories:

  • User Management (5 endpoints)
  • Medical Reports Upload (7 endpoints)
  • AI Diagnosis (5 endpoints)
  • Doctor Discovery (7 endpoints)
  • Treatment Plans (3 endpoints)
  • Appointment Booking (7 endpoints)
  • Health Tips (3 endpoint)

What the Agent Handled

Before Agent Mode

I had built all 37 endpoints with basic functionality:

app.get('/api/users/:id', (req, res) => {
    const user = users.find(u => u.id === parseInt(req.params.id));
    
    if (!user) {
        return res.status(404).json({
            success: false,
            message: 'User not found'
        });
    }
    res.json({ success: true, data: user });
});

My error handling was:

  • Inconsistent across endpoints
  • Missing detailed error messages
  • No validation error details
  • Generic 500 errors
  • No input validation messages
  • Missing error codes

After Running the Prompt

The Postman Agent Mode automatically:

  1. Added Comprehensive 4xx Errors for all 18 endpoints:

    • 400 Bad Request - Missing required fields with field-specific messages
    • 401 Unauthorized - Authentication errors (for future auth implementation)
    • 403 Forbidden - Permission denied scenarios
    • 404 Not Found - Resource not found with specific resource type
    • 409 Conflict - Duplicate resource conflicts
    • 422 Unprocessable Entity - Validation failures with details

  2. Added Detailed 5xx Errors:

    • 500 Internal Server Error - With proper error logging
    • 503 Service Unavailable - For database connection issues

  3. Standardized Error Response Format:

{
  "success": false,
  "error": {
    "code": "RESOURCE_NOT_FOUND",
    "message": "User with ID 999 not found",
    "statusCode": 404,
    "timestamp": "2026-01-29T10:30:00.000Z",
    "path": "/api/users/999"
  }
}
  1. Added Validation Error Details:
{
  "success": false,
  "error": {
    "code": "VALIDATION_ERROR",
    "message": "Invalid input data",
    "statusCode": 400,
    "details": [
      {
        "field": "email",
        "message": "Invalid email format"
      },
      {
        "field": "phone",
        "message": "Phone number must be 10 digits"
      }
    ]
  }
}

  1. Enhanced Specific Endpoints:

    User Registration (POST /api/users):

    • Added: Missing email validation
    • Added: Duplicate email check (409 Conflict)
    • Added: Invalid phone format validation
    • Added: Age range validation

    Medical Report Upload (POST /api/reports):

    • Added: File size limit errors
    • Added: Unsupported file type errors (422)
    • Added: Missing userId validation
    • Added: Invalid reportType validation

    Doctor Search (GET /api/doctors):

    • Added: Invalid query parameter errors
    • Added: Invalid maxFee format validation
    • Added: Location not supported errors

    Appointment Booking (POST /api/appointments):

    • Added: Date validation (past date errors)
    • Added: Time slot unavailable (409 Conflict)
    • Added: Doctor not available errors
    • Added: Double booking prevention

  2. Added Error Examples to each endpoint’s documentation with:

    • Sample error request
    • Expected error response
    • HTTP status code
    • Error code reference

What I Didn’t Have to Do Anymore

Manual Work Eliminated

Before Agent Mode (Manual Process):

  1. Identify all possible error scenarios for 37 endpoints (2-3 hours)
  2. Write error handling code for each scenario (4-5 hours)
  3. Create a consistent error response format (1 hour)
  4. Add validation logic for each field (3-4 hours)
  5. Document error responses in Postman (2-3 hours)
  6. Test each error scenario manually (3-4 hours)
  7. Update error messages for consistency (1-2 hours)

Total Manual Time: ~16-22 hours

With Agent Mode: 15 minutes

  • Type the prompt
  • Agent analyzes all 37 endpoints
  • Agent adds comprehensive error handling
  • Agent updates documentation
  • Ready to test!

Why This Matters for Medicotest

Medicotest will serve vulnerable populations who need:

  • Clear error messages in understandable language
  • Guidance when upload fails (file size, format)
  • Helpful feedback for form validation
  • Confidence that their data is being handled properly

Without Proper Errors:

User uploads 15MB X-ray image
Response: "Error 500"
Result: User confused, thinks platform is broken, gives up

With Agent Mode-Enhanced Errors:

User uploads 15MB X-ray image
Response: {
  "error": {
    "code": "FILE_TOO_LARGE",
    "message": "Image size exceeds 10MB limit. Please compress your image.",
    "statusCode": 413,
    "details": {
      "maxSize": "10MB",
      "receivedSize": "15MB",
      "suggestion": "Try using image compression tools or reduce image quality"
    }
  }
}

Result: User understands the issue, compresses the image, and successfully uploads

image
image1920×1061 265 KB

image
image1920×1042 193 KB

Final Thoughts

As a solo developer building Medicotest to help people access affordable healthcare, Agent Mode has been a game-changer.

Agent Mode didn’t just save time - it elevated the quality of my API to enterprise standards. For a healthcare platform where clear communication can literally help people get the care they need, this is invaluable.

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