HubSpot Advanced Troubleshooting

Overview

Deep debugging techniques for complex HubSpot API issues: systematic layer testing, timing analysis, correlation ID tracking, and support escalation.

Prerequisites

• Access to application logs
• curl and jq available
• HubSpot access token for manual testing

Instructions

Step 1: Systematic Layer Testing

Test each layer independently to isolate the failure:

#!/bin/bash
# hubspot-layer-test.sh

echo "=== HubSpot Layer-by-Layer Diagnostic ==="

# Layer 1: DNS Resolution
echo "1. DNS Resolution"
dig api.hubapi.com +short || echo "FAIL: DNS resolution"

# Layer 2: TCP Connectivity
echo "2. TCP Connectivity"
timeout 5 bash -c 'echo > /dev/tcp/api.hubapi.com/443' 2>/dev/null \
  && echo "OK" || echo "FAIL: Cannot reach port 443"

# Layer 3: TLS Handshake
echo "3. TLS Handshake"
echo | openssl s_client -connect api.hubapi.com:443 2>/dev/null | grep "Verify return code"

# Layer 4: HTTP Response (unauthenticated)
echo "4. HTTP Response (no auth)"
curl -so /dev/null -w "HTTP %{http_code} in %{time_total}s\n" \
  https://api.hubapi.com/crm/v3/objects/contacts?limit=1

# Layer 5: Authenticated Request
echo "5. Authenticated Request"
RESPONSE=$(curl -s -w "\n%{http_code}" \
  https://api.hubapi.com/crm/v3/objects/contacts?limit=1 \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $HUBSPOT_ACCESS_TOKEN")
HTTP_CODE=$(echo "$RESPONSE" | tail -1)
BODY=$(echo "$RESPONSE" | head -n -1)
echo "HTTP $HTTP_CODE"

if [ "$HTTP_CODE" = "200" ]; then
  echo "OK: API accessible"
  echo "Records: $(echo $BODY | jq '.results | length')"
else
  echo "FAIL: $(echo $BODY | jq -r '.category // .message')"
  echo "Correlation ID: $(echo $BODY | jq -r '.correlationId // "none"')"
fi

# Layer 6: Rate Limit State
echo "6. Rate Limit State"
curl -sI https://api.hubapi.com/crm/v3/objects/contacts?limit=1 \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $HUBSPOT_ACCESS_TOKEN" \
  | grep -i "ratelimit" | sed 's/^/   /'

Step 2: Correlation ID Tracking

Every HubSpot error response includes a correlationId. Track these for support:

import * as hubspot from '@hubspot/api-client';

// Collect correlation IDs from errors
const errorLog: Array<{
  timestamp: string;
  correlationId: string;
  statusCode: number;
  category: string;
  message: string;
  endpoint: string;
}> = [];

async function debuggedApiCall<T>(
  endpoint: string,
  operation: () => Promise<T>
): Promise<T> {
  try {
    return await operation();
  } catch (error: any) {
    const body = error?.body || {};
    const entry = {
      timestamp: new Date().toISOString(),
      correlationId: body.correlationId || 'unknown',
      statusCode: error?.code || error?.statusCode || 500,
      category: body.category || 'UNKNOWN',
      message: body.message || error.message,
      endpoint,
    };
    errorLog.push(entry);
    console.error('HubSpot error:', entry);
    throw error;
  }
}

// Dump error log for support ticket
function getErrorReport(): string {
  return errorLog.map(e =>
    `[${e.timestamp}] ${e.statusCode} ${e.category} | ${e.correlationId} | ${e.endpoint}: ${e.message}`
  ).join('\n');
}

Step 3: Timing Analysis

async function timingAnalysis() {
  const operations = [
    {
      name: 'GET contacts (single)',
      fn: () => client.crm.contacts.basicApi.getPage(1, undefined, ['email']),
    },
    {
      name: 'SEARCH contacts',
      fn: () => client.crm.contacts.searchApi.doSearch({
        filterGroups: [{
          filters: [{ propertyName: 'lifecyclestage', operator: 'EQ', value: 'lead' }],
        }],
        properties: ['email'], limit: 1, after: 0, sorts: [],
      }),
    },
    {
      name: 'GET pipelines',
      fn: () => client.crm.pipelines.pipelinesApi.getAll('deals'),
    },
    {
      name: 'GET properties',
      fn: () => client.crm.properties.coreApi.getAll('contacts'),
    },
  ];

  console.log('=== HubSpot Timing Analysis ===');
  for (const op of operations) {
    const times: number[] = [];
    for (let i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
      const start = performance.now();
      try {
        await op.fn();
        times.push(performance.now() - start);
      } catch {
        times.push(-1); // mark failures
      }
    }

    const successful = times.filter(t => t >= 0);
    if (successful.length > 0) {
      console.log(`${op.name}:
  Min: ${Math.min(...successful).toFixed(0)}ms
  Max: ${Math.max(...successful).toFixed(0)}ms
  Avg: ${(successful.reduce((a, b) => a + b, 0) / successful.length).toFixed(0)}ms
  Failures: ${times.length - successful.length}/5`);
    } else {
      console.log(`${op.name}: ALL FAILED`);
    }
  }
}

Step 4: Reproduce Specific Error

// Reproduce common intermittent issues

// Test 1: Rapid sequential calls (rate limit sensitivity)
async function testRateLimit(requestCount = 20) {
  console.log(`Sending ${requestCount} rapid requests...`);
  let success = 0, rateLimited = 0, errors = 0;

  for (let i = 0; i < requestCount; i++) {
    try {
      await client.crm.contacts.basicApi.getPage(1, undefined, ['email']);
      success++;
    } catch (error: any) {
      if (error?.code === 429) rateLimited++;
      else errors++;
    }
  }
  console.log(`Results: ${success} ok, ${rateLimited} rate limited, ${errors} errors`);
}

// Test 2: Concurrent requests (connection pool issues)
async function testConcurrency(concurrent = 10) {
  console.log(`Sending ${concurrent} concurrent requests...`);
  const results = await Promise.allSettled(
    Array.from({ length: concurrent }, () =>
      client.crm.contacts.basicApi.getPage(1, undefined, ['email'])
    )
  );

  const fulfilled = results.filter(r => r.status === 'fulfilled').length;
  const rejected = results.filter(r => r.status === 'rejected').length;
  console.log(`Results: ${fulfilled} ok, ${rejected} failed`);

  const failures = results.filter(r => r.status === 'rejected') as PromiseRejectedResult[];
  for (const f of failures) {
    console.log(`  Error: ${f.reason?.code} ${f.reason?.body?.category}`);
  }
}

Step 5: Support Escalation Template

## HubSpot Support Escalation

**Severity:** P[1-4]
**Portal ID:** [your portal ID]
**Correlation IDs:** [list from error log]

### Issue Summary
[1-2 sentence description]

### Steps to Reproduce
1. Make API call: POST /crm/v3/objects/contacts/search
2. With body: { "filterGroups": [...], "properties": ["email"], "limit": 10 }
3. Observe: 500 Internal Server Error

### Error Response
```json
{
  "status": "error",
  "message": "[exact error message]",
  "correlationId": "[exact ID]",
  "category": "[exact category]"
}

Environment

• SDK: @hubspot/api-client v[version]
• Node.js: v[version]
• Auth: Private app token

Timeline

• [time]: First occurrence
• [time]: Frequency increased
• [time]: Pattern identified

What We've Tried

1. [Workaround 1] - Result
2. [Workaround 2] - Result

## Output

- Layer-by-layer diagnostic isolating the failure point
- Correlation ID collection for support tickets
- Timing analysis identifying latency patterns
- Reproduction scripts for rate limit and concurrency issues
- Support escalation template with all required evidence

## Error Handling

| Scenario | Diagnostic | Next Step |
|----------|-----------|-----------|
| DNS fails | Check resolver config | Try `8.8.8.8` resolver |
| TLS fails | Certificate issue | Check system CA bundle |
| 401 after working | Token rotated | Regenerate in Settings |
| Intermittent 500 | HubSpot server issue | Collect correlation IDs, file ticket |
| Latency spikes | Network or HubSpot load | Run timing analysis over time |

## Resources

- [HubSpot Support Portal](https://help.hubspot.com/)
- [HubSpot Developer Community](https://community.hubspot.com/t5/APIs-Integrations/bd-p/integration)
- [Error Handling Guide](https://developers.hubspot.com/docs/api-reference/error-handling)

## Next Steps

For load testing, see `hubspot-load-scale`.