Error handling

Every error the library throws is an IAPError — a typed Error subclass with a stable code, a remediation hint, and (when applicable) a cause chain to the underlying failure.

Anatomy of an `IAPError`

typescript

import { IAPError, IAPErrorCode, isIAPError, errorHint } from '@nosslabs/iap';

try {
  await iap.purchase({ productId: 'premium_monthly' });
} catch (error) {
  if (isIAPError(error)) {
    error.code;         // IAPErrorCode — stable enum, safe to switch on
    error.message;      // human-readable description + auto-appended hint
    error.recoverable;  // boolean — should the UI offer "try again"?
    error.cause;        // unknown — original error from native/backend, if any
  }
}

The message looks like:

Backend returned 401 Unauthorized

Hint: Backend returned 401/403. Check that getAuthHeaders() returns a valid Bearer token and that the backend recognizes it.

Hints are auto-appended unless the constructor was called with includeHint: false (rare — only used internally when the message already contains remediation text, e.g. zod validation errors).

Switching on `code`

The error.code field is a stable string enum. Switch on it rather than parsing message:

typescript

import { IAPErrorCode, isIAPError } from '@nosslabs/iap';

try {
  await iap.purchase({ productId: 'premium_monthly' });
} catch (error) {
  if (!isIAPError(error)) throw error;

  switch (error.code) {
    case IAPErrorCode.USER_CANCELLED:
      // No-op — user dismissed the sheet
      break;
    case IAPErrorCode.PURCHASE_PENDING:
      toast('Payment processing — we\'ll notify you when it clears');
      break;
    case IAPErrorCode.BACKEND_AUTH_FAILED:
      // Re-auth the user
      router.push('/login');
      break;
    case IAPErrorCode.BACKEND_UNAVAILABLE:
    case IAPErrorCode.BACKEND_TIMEOUT:
      toast('Network issue — please try again');
      break;
    default:
      toast(`Purchase failed: ${error.message}`);
  }
}

Prefer iap.purchase() discriminated result

For the purchase flow specifically, the discriminated union from iap.purchase() is more ergonomic than try/catch — see Getting started → Buy something. Use try/catch for restorePurchases(), refresh(), and initialize().

All error codes

Code	Recoverable	When it fires	What to do
`INVALID_CONFIG`	no	`createIAP({ ... })` — schema validation failed	Fix the config; re-read the field paths in the message
`NOT_INITIALIZED`	no	A method called before `initialize()` resolved	`await iap.initialize()` first
`PLATFORM_NOT_SUPPORTED`	no	`purchase()` / `restorePurchases()` on web	Guard the UI behind `Capacitor.isNativePlatform()`
`BILLING_NOT_AVAILABLE`	no	`cordova-plugin-purchase` couldn't initialize	Check `npx cap sync` ran; check device sandbox account
`PRODUCT_NOT_FOUND`	no	Purchasing a productId not in the store catalog	Verify productId in App Store Connect / Play Console AND in `createIAP({ products })`
`USER_CANCELLED`	no	User dismissed the system purchase sheet	No action needed
`PURCHASE_PENDING`	no	Android: payment awaiting external clearance	Tell the user; trust the backend webhook
`ALREADY_PURCHASED`	no	Buying a non-consumable the user already owns	Use `restorePurchases()` to re-grant
`STORE_ERROR`	no	Generic native-side failure (declined card, store down)	Surface message; offer retry
`UNACKNOWLEDGED_PENDING`	yes	Google purchase >2 days unacknowledged	Library auto-retries on next refresh
`ALREADY_IN_PROGRESS`	no	Concurrent `purchase()` for same productId	Await the in-flight call
`BACKEND_UNAVAILABLE`	yes	Backend unreachable / 5xx / network drop	Library auto-retries; surface to user if persistent
`BACKEND_TIMEOUT`	yes	Backend exceeded `timeoutMs`	Increase `timeoutMs` or check server perf
`BACKEND_AUTH_FAILED`	no	401 / 403 from backend	Re-auth user; check `getAuthHeaders()`
`BACKEND_BAD_RESPONSE`	no	4xx / malformed JSON / schema mismatch	Backend doesn't match contract
`VERIFICATION_REJECTED`	no	Backend returned `{ valid: false }`	Don't auto-retry; transaction stays in queue for `iap.refresh()`
`STORAGE_ERROR`	yes	Capacitor Preferences write failed	In-memory state is fine; persistence will retry
`INVALID_APP_USER_ID`	no	`purchase({ appUserId })` value (literal or fetcher-returned) isn't a UUID v4	Pass `crypto.randomUUID()` or omit `appUserId` to fall back to subject.key mapping
`APP_USER_ID_FETCH_FAILED`	no	The async appUserId fetcher threw or rejected	Inspect `error.cause` for the underlying error (network failure, backend non-2xx)

Get the per-code hint programmatically:

typescript

import { errorHint, IAPErrorCode } from '@nosslabs/iap';

console.log(errorHint(IAPErrorCode.BACKEND_AUTH_FAILED));
// → "Backend returned 401/403. Check that getAuthHeaders() returns a valid Bearer token..."

`recoverable` flag

error.recoverable: boolean is a hint to your UI: should the "try again" button appear?

Recoverable (true) — transient: backend was down, network blipped, storage write failed. The library has likely retried already and exhausted attempts; a user-initiated retry might succeed.
Non-recoverable (false) — fatal: bad config, invalid receipt, user cancelled, platform unsupported. Retry will produce the same error.

Default classifications:

Recoverable: BACKEND_UNAVAILABLE, BACKEND_TIMEOUT, STORAGE_ERROR, UNACKNOWLEDGED_PENDING
Everything else: non-recoverable

You can override per-throw via the constructor's recoverable option, but stick with defaults unless you have a strong reason.

The `cause` chain

When the library wraps an underlying error, cause preserves the original:

typescript

try {
  await iap.refresh();
} catch (error) {
  if (isIAPError(error)) {
    console.error('IAP error:', error.code, error.message);

    if (error.cause instanceof Error) {
      // Original fetch error, JSON parse error, etc.
      Sentry.captureException(error.cause);
    }
  }
}

Always log error.cause separately from error itself if you're shipping to Sentry / Datadog — the cause has the underlying stack trace, while IAPError has the orchestration context.

Logging hygiene

The library logs at the logLevel you configure (default 'info'). Recommended levels:

Production: 'warn' — captures STORE_ERROR, BACKEND_AUTH_FAILED, etc., without the noisy debug trace.
Development: 'debug' — full trace of every native event, backend call, and entitlement diff.
Tests: 'silent' — keep test output clean.

Plug in a custom logger to ship to your observability stack:

typescript

const config = {
  // ...
  options: {
    logLevel: 'warn',
    logger: {
      error: (msg, ctx) => Sentry.captureMessage(msg, { extra: ctx }),
      warn:  (msg, ctx) => Sentry.captureMessage(msg, { extra: ctx, level: 'warning' }),
      info:  () => {}, // drop info in prod
      debug: () => {}, // drop debug in prod
    },
  },
};

Don't log receipt tokens

The library never logs raw transaction.token (StoreKit transactionId / Google purchaseToken) by default. If you wrap the logger, don't JSON.stringify(error.cause) blindly — cause may contain a network response with the token. Strip token-shaped strings before sending to your observability backend.

What `iap.initialize()` can throw

Surprisingly little. initialize() is designed to be resilient because failing init breaks every consumer's app boot.

Scenarios:

Native plugin missing → logs warning, sets web-stub mode, init succeeds.
Backend unreachable during background refresh → swallowed, emitted via error event, init succeeds.
Storage read fails → logs error, in-memory state is empty, init succeeds.
INVALID_CONFIG → throws at createIAP() call (synchronous), never reaches initialize().

So await iap.initialize() should very rarely throw in practice. The few cases that DO throw are coding errors (calling initialize() after destroy()).

What `iap.purchase()` can throw

purchase() does NOT throw on user-cancellation, pending, or verification failure — those are surfaced via the PurchaseResult discriminated union (status: 'cancelled' | 'pending' | 'verification_failed' | 'failed').

It DOES throw on:

INVALID_CONFIG (productId not in config.products)
NOT_INITIALIZED
ALREADY_IN_PROGRESS (concurrent purchase for same productId)
PLATFORM_NOT_SUPPORTED (web)
INVALID_APP_USER_ID (appUserId not a UUID v4)
APP_USER_ID_FETCH_FAILED (async fetcher threw / rejected; original attached as cause)

These are programming errors / pre-flight failures, not user-flow errors — surface them in dev, silence them in production (the user can't fix them).

Permanent vs transient classification (recovery)

When recovery runs at initialize() time, every entry in the unfinished-transactions list is re-verified with your backend. The backend's response shape is { valid: true, ... } or { valid: false, error: string, message?: string }. Before v0.4.0, every valid:false was retained for retry on the next launch — fine for transient backend hiccups, but pathological for permanent domain failures like TRANSACTION_NOT_FOUND (Apple/Google has no record of this transactionId), where retrying achieves nothing and hammers your backend on every app resume.

From v0.4.0, recovery classifies the error code against options.permanentErrorCodes:

In the set → drop the entry (best-effort acknowledge() to clear the platform queue, then unfinished.remove(), then emit 'recovery-dropped-permanent').
Not in the set → retain (legacy behavior — retry on next launch).

Default set:

import { DEFAULT_PERMANENT_ERROR_CODES } from '@nosslabs/iap';
// ['TRANSACTION_NOT_FOUND', 'PRODUCT_MISMATCH']

Extend with your backend's custom permanent codes:

createIAP({
  options: {
    permanentErrorCodes: [...DEFAULT_PERMANENT_ERROR_CODES, 'MY_BACKEND_CODE'],
  },
});

Disable entirely (revert to retry-forever):

createIAP({
  options: { permanentErrorCodes: [] },
});

Listen for drops via the new event for ops observability:

iap.on('recovery-dropped-permanent', ({ productId, error, message }) => {
  console.warn(`[iap] dropped permanently-invalid tx for ${productId}: ${error}`, { message });
});

The default codes match the documented contract used by Attesto's backend recipes — both TRANSACTION_NOT_FOUND and PRODUCT_MISMATCH are answers, not infrastructure failures (they're returned with HTTP 200 + valid:false, never as 5xx). Codes deliberately excluded from the default set: STALE_TRANSACTION (sometimes legitimately retryable), SIGNATURE_INVALID (Apple cert rotation has caused historical false positives), and any INVALID_REQUEST (caller bug — shouldn't fire from recovery, which resends previously-valid request shapes).

Backend lag assumption

The default set assumes your backend queries Apple App Store Server API / Google Play Developer API with eventually-consistent reads (typical for Attesto's recipe pattern). If your backend reads from a replicated database with replication lag exceeding app-launch cadence, a TRANSACTION_NOT_FOUND response could be transient — in that case configure permanentErrorCodes: [] (or a custom set) until the lag is reconciled.

Events — full event reference
Backend contract — what your backend returns on each path
IAPError API — full type reference

Error handling ​

Anatomy of an IAPError ​

Switching on code ​

All error codes ​

recoverable flag ​

The cause chain ​

Logging hygiene ​

What iap.initialize() can throw ​

What iap.purchase() can throw ​

Permanent vs transient classification (recovery) ​

Next ​

Error handling

Anatomy of an `IAPError`

Switching on `code`

All error codes

`recoverable` flag

The `cause` chain

Logging hygiene

What `iap.initialize()` can throw

What `iap.purchase()` can throw

Permanent vs transient classification (recovery)

Next