When an API is down, what do you usually do?

Question

When you are working with (in development) a third-party API and it is down, what do you usually do to spend time? Do any of you feel stress from the inability to be able to complete your project?

ftxbro · Accepted Answer

The OpenAI API is down right now and I went to hacker news and read 'new', like that could somehow fix it.

jskulski · Answer

I generally will use vcr[0] or something similar to record requests and then I write tests and code against that.
3rd parties go down, it happens. In general a system that is dependent on a third party should have some non exceptional behavior when that happens.
So if I’m not setup with vcr, and 3rd party is down- I would on the behavior for what happens when it’s down.
[0] https://github.com/vcr/vcr

gregjor · Answer

Look for a more stable API. I don&rsquo;t &ldquo;usually&rdquo; do anything because I avoid APIs and tools I can&rsquo;t rely on.

mattbgates · Answer

Always working on a few projects.... helps me when I get stuck on one. This no different.