Error Messages
Overview
When something goes wrong, visitors see a short, friendly message instead of a technical error. You can change these messages in WPiko Chatbot → Chat Experience → Error Messages, for example to match your tone or translate them.
Technical errors (such as “cURL error 28”, “429” or “504 Gateway Timeout”) are mapped automatically to one of the categories below. The technical details are written to the Debug Log.
Error Categories
| Category | Used when | Default message |
|---|---|---|
| General Error | Anything that doesn’t fit another category | An unexpected error occurred. Please try again later. |
| Connection Issues | Timeouts, the server can’t be reached, the visitor is offline | We are having trouble connecting to the server. Please check your internet connection. |
| Server Busy | Rate limits or overloaded services | The system is currently busy. Please try again in a few moments. |
| Authentication Failed | The visitor’s session expired | Your session has expired. Please refresh the page and try again. |
| Feature Unavailable | A restricted or disabled feature was used | This feature is currently unavailable. |
| Service Unavailable | An OpenAI key or billing problem, such as no credit or a rejected key | The chat assistant is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later. |
Leave a field empty to use the default. Click Save Error Messages to apply your changes.
What Admins See
When you, as a logged-in site admin, chat with the bot and something fails, you see the real reason and a link to fix it. For example: “Your OpenAI account has no credit… add credit in your OpenAI billing settings”. Visitors only ever see the friendly message. The Dashboard also lists these problems under Attention Required.
Other Visitor Messages
- The message shown when a visitor reaches their limit is set in User Limits.
- Email Capture’s validation message is set in Pro Features → Email Capture.
Writing Good Error Messages
- Keep them short (under 150 characters) and friendly.
- Tell the visitor what to do next: try again, refresh, or contact you.
- For Service Unavailable, consider adding another way to reach you, such as your email or phone number.
- Write them in your visitors’ language.
