Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. Account & Permission Issues

1.1 Why is my API key not working? Cause: The API key may have been disabled or deleted. Solution: Log in to the CatFee official website to check the status of your API key.

1.2 How can I restrict API key access to specific IP addresses? Solution: When creating or editing an API key, specify the IP address you wish to bind. This will restrict access to only that IP, improving security.

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2. Signature & Authentication Issues

2.1 Why am I receiving 401 Unauthorized? Possible Causes:

• Invalid CF-ACCESS-KEY or CF-ACCESS-SIGN.

• Incorrect signature generation.

• Timestamp deviation exceeds 5 seconds.

Solution:

• Ensure CF-ACCESS-KEY, CF-ACCESS-PASSPHRASE match those set when the API key was created.

• Make sure the signature follows CatFee's signature rules.

• Confirm that CF-ACCESS-TIMESTAMP is a valid UTC timestamp and the deviation from server time is less than 5 seconds.

2.2 How to verify signature generation? Solution:

• Print the string to be signed (timestamp + method + requestPath).

• Compare the generated signature with one computed manually.

• You can use Postman or Curl for manual testing and comparison.

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3. Request & Response Issues

3.1 Why am I receiving 400 Bad Request? Possible Causes:

• Invalid or missing request parameters.

• Incorrect API path.

Solution:

• Check the API documentation to ensure parameters and paths are correct.

• Make sure the Content-Type header is set to application/json.

• Confirm the request body is in proper JSON format.

3.2 Why am I receiving 429 Too Many Requests? Cause: Request rate exceeds the API limit. Solution:

• Read the API documentation to understand rate limits.

• Implement throttling in your code to stay within the allowed request frequency.

• In distributed environments, ensure the total request rate across systems doesn't exceed the limit.

3.3 Why am I receiving 500 Internal Server Error? Cause: Temporary issue on the server side. Solution:

• Check network connectivity to ensure the request was successfully sent.

• Retry after a few seconds.

• If the issue persists, contact CatFee technical support.

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4. Specific Endpoint Issues

4.1 Why am I unable to place an order? Possible Causes:

• Insufficient account balance.

• Invalid order parameters (e.g. price, amount).

• Trading permissions not enabled.

Solution:

• Ensure sufficient balance in your account.

• Check that order parameters (e.g. quantity, cycle) meet minimum order requirements—refer to the "Create Order" section of the documentation.

4.2 How to verify that purchased energy has been delivered?

• After placing an order, record the returned id (payment hash/order ID).

• When status = TRANSFER_SUCCESS, the order has been placed successfully.

• Typically, energy will be credited within 6 seconds after a successful order.

• Use /v1/order/{id} to query the order status:

  • TRANSFER_SUCCESS: Order placed successfully

  • DELEGATE_SUCCESS: Energy delegated successfully

  • RECLAIM_SUCCESS: Energy reclaimed

When status is DELEGATE_SUCCESS, it means the energy transaction has been submitted to the TRON blockchain. Note: In rare cases (approx. 0.1%), the transaction might fail to be confirmed on-chain.

Check the blockchain confirmation via confirm_status in the order details (/v1/order/{id}):

• DELEGATION_CONFIRMED: Energy has been 100% successfully delivered and confirmed on-chain.

4.3 Why are some orders taking longer to complete?

• There is a very small chance (~0.1%) that TRON transactions may not be confirmed on-chain. In such cases, the platform will automatically resend the energy.

• When platform energy supply is under heavy load, energy delivery may experience delays.

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5. Development & Debugging Issues

5.1 How to handle timeout issues? Possible Causes:

• Network latency or unstable connection.

Solution:

• Set a longer timeout (e.g. timeout = 30).

• Implement retry logic for critical operations (e.g. retry 2–3 times).

• Check local network connectivity to CatFee API servers.

5.2 How to parse API responses? Solution: CatFee API responses are typically in JSON format:

{
  "code": "0",
  "msg": "",
  "data": {
    "key": "value"
  }
}

• code = 0 indicates success.

• Non-zero code values indicate errors.

• The main response data is inside the data field—parse JSON to retrieve specific values.

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6. Other Issues

6.1 Why does timestamp validation often fail? Cause: Local time is not synced with UTC. Solution: Use datetime.utcnow() in Python (or equivalent in your language).

6.2 How to handle API version upgrades? Solution:

• Subscribe to CatFee developer announcements to stay updated.

• Regularly update your code to match the latest API versions.

• Use versioned APIs (e.g. /v1/) to avoid compatibility issues during upgrades.

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7. Contact Support

If you still cannot resolve your issue, please contact CatFee technical support:

• Submit a ticket: CatFee Support Center

• Developer Documentation: API Docs

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We hope this FAQ helps you quickly resolve common issues encountered when using the CatFee API!