echo/website/content/guide/error-handling.md

+++
title = "Error Handling"
description = "Error handling in Echo"
[menu.main]
  name = "Error Handling"
  parent = "guide"
  weight = 8
+++

Echo advocates centralized HTTP error handling by returning error from middleware
and handlers. It allows us to log/report errors to external services from a unified
location and send customized HTTP responses.

For example, when basic auth middleware finds invalid credentials it returns
`401 - Unauthorized` error, aborting the current HTTP request.

```go
package main

import (
	"net/http"

	"github.com/labstack/echo"
)

func main() {
	e := echo.New()
	e.Use(func(next echo.HandlerFunc) echo.HandlerFunc {
		return func(c echo.Context) error {
			// Extract the credentials from HTTP request header and perform a security
			// check

			// For invalid credentials
			return echo.NewHTTPError(http.StatusUnauthorized)

			// For valid credentials call next
			// return next(c)
		}
	})
	e.GET("/", welcome)
	e.Logger.Fatal(e.Start(":1323"))
}

func welcome(c echo.Context) error {
	return c.String(http.StatusOK, "Welcome!")
}
```

See how [HTTPErrorHandler](/guide/customization#http-error-handler) handles it.