Validation error JSON response example

Last updated 2026-05-20

When to use this

Use this for a 422 validation-error envelope — per-field error messages, a top-level message, and an error code your client can branch on.

Example JSON

POST /users/add with a bad payload returns this shape.

{
  "message": "Validation failed",
  "code": "validation_failed",
  "errors": {
    "email": [
      "Email is required",
      "Email must be valid"
    ],
    "password": [
      "Password must be at least 8 characters"
    ],
    "age": [
      "Age must be a positive integer"
    ]
  }
}

Request examples

const res = await fetch('https://jsonexamples.com/users/add', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
  body: JSON.stringify({ email: '', password: '123', age: -1 })
});
if (!res.ok) {
  const { errors } = await res.json();
  console.error(errors);
}

curl -s -X POST https://jsonexamples.com/http/422/Validation+failed

Try the live endpoint

Click below to call /http/422/Validation+failed from your browser.

// click the button to populate this block

Common variations

RFC 7807 problem+json

Equivalent error in the IETF problem-details format.

{
  "type": "https://jsonexamples.com/errors/validation-failed",
  "title": "Validation failed",
  "status": 422,
  "detail": "Three fields failed validation.",
  "instance": "/users/add",
  "errors": [
    {
      "field": "email",
      "message": "Email is required"
    },
    {
      "field": "password",
      "message": "Password must be at least 8 characters"
    }
  ]
}

Convert this JSON

Generated starting points for TypeScript, JSON Schema, and Zod. Refine before shipping to production.

export interface ValidationError {
  "message": string;
  "code": string;
  "errors": {
    "email": string[];
    "password": string[];
    "age": string[];
  };
}

{
  "$schema": "http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#",
  "title": "ValidationError",
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "message": {
      "type": "string"
    },
    "code": {
      "type": "string"
    },
    "errors": {
      "type": "object",
      "properties": {
        "email": {
          "type": "array",
          "items": {
            "type": "string"
          }
        },
        "password": {
          "type": "array",
          "items": {
            "type": "string"
          }
        },
        "age": {
          "type": "array",
          "items": {
            "type": "string"
          }
        }
      },
      "required": [
        "email",
        "password",
        "age"
      ],
      "additionalProperties": false
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "message",
    "code",
    "errors"
  ],
  "additionalProperties": false
}

import { z } from 'zod';

export const ValidationErrorSchema = z.object({
  message: z.string(),
  code: z.string(),
  errors: z.object({
    email: z.array(z.string()),
    password: z.array(z.string()),
    age: z.array(z.string())
  })
});
export type ValidationError = z.infer<typeof ValidationErrorSchema>;