OpenAI API Troubleshooting

Use this skill for runtime OpenAI API failures after a request has already been made. Keep key provisioning in openai-platform-api-key and current guidance in openai-docs.

Routing

1. Sandboxed or blocked outbound network access

   • Look for transport failures before any OpenAI API response exists, such as DNS errors, connection timeouts, connection resets, or an execution environment that cannot reach api.openai.com.
   • Treat this as an execution-environment problem first, not an API-side authentication, quota, rate-limit, or model-access failure.
   • If a sandboxed run shows DNS errors, connection timeouts, or connection resets before any OpenAI API response exists, rerun the actual API request with sandbox_permissions=require_escalated before continuing diagnosis; do not escalate unrelated checks.
   • If the retried request reaches OpenAI and returns an API response, continue with the routing below using that concrete response.

2. Authentication or missing-key errors

   • Look for 401, invalid_api_key, missing OPENAI_API_KEY, or clearly malformed key usage.
   • Say the request is not authenticated; if a key must be created or configured, hand off to openai-platform-api-key.