500 Internal Server Error
- Any server
- Vercel
- Supabase
What it means
Something went wrong on the server, and it deliberately did not tell the browser what. The real error message is in your host's logs, not in the page.
Why it happens
- An uncaught error in a server route or function.
- A missing environment variable or failed database call in production only.
- A third-party service that is down or rejects the request.
How to fix it
- Open your host's function logs (Vercel: the deployment's Logs) and find the request at that time.
- Read the real error there, then look it up in the error explainer.
- Add error tracking so you hear about the next one before your users do.
Let your AI find the cause
Paste this into Claude Code, Cursor, Lovable or whichever AI built your app. It looks first and changes nothing until you have read the answer.
A request in my app returns 500 Internal Server Error. Without changing anything yet, find the server code that handles it, list what it depends on (environment variables, database, external APIs), and tell me where its errors are logged.