How Error Tracking Works

Error tracking captures errors and helps you debug issues in production.

What It Captures

Errors

Custom errors you report
Exception messages with stack traces

Context

Error message
Stack trace (when provided)
Timestamp (ISO 8601 format)

Data Flow

┌─────────────┐       HTTP POST       ┌─────────────────┐
│   Your      │──────────────────────►│   Shard         │
│   Game      │  /api/monitor/report  │   Launcher      │
└─────────────┘                       └─────────────────┘
       │                                     │
       │ Fire-and-forget                     │ Aggregates
       │ (no blocking)                       │ error data
       ▼                                     ▼
┌─────────────┐                       ┌─────────────────┐
│   Game      │                       │   Error         │
│   Continues │                       │   Dashboard     │
└─────────────┘                       └─────────────────┘

Payload Structure

Every error report includes:

{
  "message": "Connection to server failed",
  "stackTrace": "at GameManager.Connect() line 42",
  "timestamp": "2024-01-15T10:30:00.000Z"
}

Field	Type	Description
`message`	string	Human-readable error message
`stackTrace`	string	Stack trace (can be empty)
`timestamp`	string	ISO 8601 timestamp

Silent Failure

All SDKs use fire-and-forget HTTP requests:

Errors are sent asynchronously
No blocking of game execution
If Launcher is unavailable, calls fail silently
No exceptions thrown to game code

Your game continues running normally even if the launcher is unavailable.

Best Practices

Report Meaningful Errors

# Good - specific and actionable
ShardSDK.monitor.report_error("Failed to load save file: corrupted header")
 
# Bad - too vague
ShardSDK.monitor.report_error("Error")

// Good - specific and actionable
ShardSDK.Monitor.ReportError("Failed to load save file: corrupted header");
 
// Bad - too vague
ShardSDK.Monitor.ReportError("Error");

// Good - specific and actionable
shard_monitor_report("Failed to load save file: corrupted header");

// Bad - too vague
shard_monitor_report("Error");

Include Stack Traces When Available

func _on_exception(message: String):
    var stack = get_stack()
    var stack_str = ""
    for frame in stack:
        stack_str += "%s:%d in %s\n" % [frame.source, frame.line, frame.function]
    ShardSDK.monitor.report_error(message, stack_str)

try
{
    // risky code
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
    ShardSDK.Monitor.ReportError(ex.Message, ex.StackTrace);
}

try {
    // risky code
} catch (e) {
    ShardSDK.Monitor.reportError(e.message, e.stack);
}

Network Considerations

HTTP timeout: 5 seconds
Failed requests are not retried
No local queuing of errors
Minimal performance impact on game