Common Error Messages, Decoded
A reference table for the error messages you will actually see in AwardLettr and exactly what to do about each one.
You'll learn
- What the most common error messages in AwardLettr actually mean
- Which errors mean "try again" and which mean "you need to fix something"
- How to handle OAuth token expirations cleanly
You hit an error in AwardLettr and the message is technically accurate but unhelpful. 'RLS policy violation'. 'Carbone render failed'. 'Token expired'. 'Workspace context required'. You can tell something is wrong, but not what to actually do about it. That is what this article is about.
Most of these messages are translations of underlying system errors from the layers AwardLettr sits on top of: Postgres row-level security policies, the Carbone PDF rendering service, OAuth tokens from Google or Microsoft, our rate limiter, our cookie-based workspace context. They surface verbatim because rewriting every possible error string would be its own full-time job, and the original text is usually accurate enough to act on once you know the translation.
The table below is the lookup you actually need. Find the message you saw, read what it means, and follow the suggested action. Most of these have a clean fix on your end (reconnect an integration, retry the request, switch to the right workspace). A few are signals that you need to involve support or your IT admin. If you hit something not on the list, send us the exact wording and we will add it.
Most error messages in AwardLettr are written in plain English, but a few are translations of underlying system errors. Here is the lookup table you actually need.
Error reference table
| Error message | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| 'RLS policy violation' / 'new row violates row-level security policy' | A permission gate fired. Usually a staff member tried to do something that is owner-only (delete an appraisal, change billing, etc.). | Sign in as the workspace owner and retry, or ask the owner to do it. If you are the owner and you see this, message support — it is a bug. |
| 'Carbone render failed' / 'Template rendering error' | The Word template used to generate a document has a problem: missing variable, malformed tag, or a placeholder that points to a field that does not exist on the appraisal. | See the tip below about missing template variables. If you authored the template, open it in Word and verify every {d.fieldName} tag spells the field correctly. If it is a built-in template, message support with the appraisal ID and document type. |
| 'SignWell webhook timeout' / 'Signature service unavailable' | SignWell took longer than expected to respond to our request to start the signing process. | Wait 30 seconds and try again. SignWell is usually quick to recover. If it fails three times in a row, check status.signwell.com or message support. |
| 'Estimate import: invalid item name' (Xactimate) | A line item in the imported estimate has a free-form description that does not map cleanly to your selected Xactimate price list. Tara Roddy ran into this — Xactimate is strict about description format on certain regional price lists. | See the Xactimate tip below. Open the source estimate, find the offending line, and either reformat the description to match a known catalog item or remove the line and re-add it manually after import. |
| 'Token expired' / 'OAuth token has expired' | Your connection to a third-party service (Google, Microsoft, Dropbox, CompanyCam) has timed out. We try to refresh tokens automatically but sometimes the refresh token itself is invalidated by the provider. | See the OAuth re-auth warning below. Disconnect and reconnect from Settings → Integrations. |
| 'Workspace context required' / 'No active workspace' | You switched workspaces in another browser tab, and this tab is still pointing at the old one. | See the multi-tab warning below. Refresh this tab. |
| 'Inspection conflict detected' / 'This slot has a calendar conflict' | A Google Calendar or Outlook event was found that overlaps the slot you tried to book. | Open your calendar and confirm the conflict is real. If it is a real conflict, pick a different slot. If the calendar event is a duplicate from a prior linked appraisal, click 'Refresh sync' on the appraisal banner to re-link. |
| 'Rate limit exceeded' / '429 Too Many Requests' | You hit one of our per-minute API limits. Common on bulk operations (uploading 100 photos at once, generating 20 documents in a row). | Wait 60 seconds and try again. The limits reset every minute. If you regularly hit them on normal use, message support. |
Three things worth pinning to memory
Xactimate descriptions: copy from the price list
OAuth re-auth: do it BEFORE you need to use the integration
Multi-tab workspace switching is unsafe
Next steps
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