302 - Found

Start Here

Use the closest compare guide, playbook, or adjacent error page to narrow the decision faster before you start changing production systems.

This page is part of the Error Reference library. Learn more about the project or report a correction.

What Does Found Mean?

The resource is temporarily redirected, so clients should follow the current Location without treating it as permanent canonical migration.

Common Causes

• -Authentication middleware redirects unauthenticated sessions to login endpoint as temporary navigation behavior.
• -Traffic experiment framework sends cohort users to alternate path using cookie-based temporary redirect rule.
• -Reverse proxy switches to maintenance landing page during rollout window and issues temporary redirects.

How to Fix Found

1. 1Validate temporary redirect targets and ensure they resolve correctly for the active route conditions.
2. 2Set cache headers to prevent clients and intermediaries from treating temporary redirects as permanent.
3. 3Remove stale or conflicting temporary routing rules that create loops or misdirected traffic.

Step-by-Step Diagnosis for Found

1. 1Capture original method/URI plus Location and cache headers for every 302 emission.
2. 2Trace conditions that trigger redirect rules (auth state, feature flag, maintenance toggle, traffic steering).
3. 3Inspect client behavior differences for method handling and automatic follow policies.
4. 4Retest with redirect handling set to manual and automatic modes to confirm expected outcomes.

curl -i -X GET https://api.example.com/v1/resource
# Response:
# HTTP/1.1 302 Found
# Location: https://api.example.com/v1/temporary-resource

const response = await fetch('https://api.example.com/v1/resource', {
  method: 'GET',
  headers: { 'Accept': 'application/json' },
  redirect: 'manual'
});
if (response.status === 302) {
  console.error('Handle 302 Found:', response.headers.get('location'));
}

import requests

response = requests.get(
    'https://api.example.com/v1/resource',
    headers={'Accept': 'application/json'},
    allow_redirects=False
)
if response.status_code == 302:
    print('Handle 302 Found', response.headers.get('Location'))

Seen in Production

Debugging Tools

• -curl -IL to inspect redirect hops and Location headers
• -Browser DevTools Network tab (Preserve log enabled)
• -CDN and reverse-proxy access logs
• -Redirect-chain checks in CI

How to Verify the Fix

• -Confirm 302 appears only for intended temporary scenarios and resolves to the correct destination URI.
• -Validate users and API consumers reach final endpoints without redirect loops or stale redirect caches.
• -Check redirect frequency over time to ensure temporary rules automatically wind down as planned.

How to Prevent Recurrence

• -Attach expiration and owner metadata to temporary redirect rules so they are reviewed and removed on time.
• -Monitor temporary redirect rates per route and alert on unexpected spikes or long-lived growth.
• -Prefer 307 or 308 when strict method preservation is required for write-safe client behavior.

Pro Tip

Related Errors

Official References

• -RFC 9110 Section 15.4.3 - 302 Found definition
• -IANA HTTP Status Code Registry - 302 Found
• -MDN Web Docs — 302 Found
• -HTTP Official Documentation