Apply advanced debugging techniques for Adobe API issues: IMS token
introspection, Firefly job failure analysis, PDF Services error
codes, and network-layer diagnostics for Adobe endpoints.
Trigger with phrases like "adobe hard bug", "adobe mystery error",
"adobe impossible to debug", "difficult adobe issue", "adobe deep debug".
Apply advanced debugging techniques for Adobe API issues: IMS token
introspection, Firefly job failure analysis, PDF Services error
codes, and network-layer diagnostics for Adobe endpoints.
Trigger with phrases like "adobe hard bug", "adobe mystery error",
"adobe impossible to debug", "difficult adobe issue", "adobe deep debug".
Deep debugging techniques for complex Adobe API issues that resist standard troubleshooting: IMS token problems, Firefly async job failures, PDF Services edge cases, and network-layer diagnostics.
Prerequisites
Access to production logs and metrics
curl with verbose mode for HTTP debugging
Understanding of OAuth 2.0 token flows
Network capture tools (tcpdump, openssl s_client)
Instructions
Technique 1: IMS Token Introspection
When auth issues occur, decode the access token to check claims:
# Adobe IMS tokens are JWTs — decode the payload (middle segment)
TOKEN=$(curl -s -X POST 'https://ims-na1.adobelogin.com/ims/token/v3' \
-d "client_id=${ADOBE_CLIENT_ID}&client_secret=${ADOBE_CLIENT_SECRET}&grant_type=client_credentials&scope=${ADOBE_SCOPES}" | jq -r '.access_token')
# Decode JWT payload (base64url-decode the middle segment)echo"$TOKEN" | cut -d. -f2 | tr'_-''/+' | base64 -d 2>/dev/null | jq .
# Look for:# - "exp": expiration timestamp (is it expired?)# - "iss": should be "ims-na1.adobelogin.com"# - "as": scopes granted (do they match what you requested?)# - "client_id": verify it matches your ADOBE_CLIENT_ID
Technique 2: Verbose HTTP Request Tracing
# Full HTTP trace against Firefly API
curl -v -X POST 'https://firefly-api.adobe.io/v3/images/generate' \
-H "Authorization: Bearer ${TOKEN}" \
-H "x-api-key: ${ADOBE_CLIENT_ID}" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d 2>&1 | firefly-debug.log
If a step fails, stop before applying follow-on changes, retain sanitized diagnostic evidence, and use the troubleshooting or escalation guidance already in this skill. Treat authentication and vendor-service failures separately from local configuration errors.
Examples
Start with the smallest applicable command or code example already provided in this guide, using a non-production Adobe environment and credentials. Confirm the documented response or validation result before applying the pattern to production.
