> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.engine.usesophic.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Best practices

> A list of best practices for a stable integration.

The following is a non-exhaustive list of recommended best practices for a stable integration:

* Treat all Sophic-generated IDs as opaque strings (do not parse them); support up to 255 characters
* Store IDs in a case-sensitive way; do not normalize case or trim whitespace
* Do not rely on JSON property order in requests or responses
* Ignore unfamiliar response fields for forward compatibility
* Treat enums as open-ended: implement a safe fallback for unknown enum values
* Do not parse human-readable error messages; implement logic using error codes only
* Implement a fallback behavior for unknown error codes (e.g., treat as non-retryable unless explicitly marked retryable)
* Set conservative timeouts and retry safely for network failures
* Validate inputs client-side where feasible, but do not rely on client-side validation alone
* Log request IDs returned by Sophic to speed up support and incident resolution and, if possible,
  provide a `Client-Request-Id` header in your requests
* Pin your integration to a specific Api-Version and plan upgrades during the published support window
* Monitor for deprecation signals (e.g., `Api-Version-Sunset` header) and alert on them