Perplexity Debug Bundle

Current State

!node --version 2>/dev/null || echo 'N/A' !python3 --version 2>/dev/null || echo 'N/A' !echo "PERPLEXITY_API_KEY: ${PERPLEXITY_API_KEY:+SET (${#PERPLEXITY_API_KEY} chars)}${PERPLEXITY_API_KEY:-NOT SET}"

Overview

Collect all diagnostic information needed to troubleshoot Perplexity Sonar API issues. Generates a redacted bundle safe for sharing with support or teammates.

Prerequisites

PERPLEXITY_API_KEY environment variable
curl and tar available
Permission to collect environment info

Instructions

Step 1: Create Debug Bundle Script

#!/bin/bash
set -euo pipefail
# perplexity-debug-bundle.sh

BUNDLE_DIR="perplexity-debug-$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S)"
mkdir -p "$BUNDLE_DIR"

echo "=== Perplexity Debug Bundle ===" > "$BUNDLE_DIR/summary.txt"
echo "Generated: $(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ)" >> "$BUNDLE_DIR/summary.txt"
echo "" >> "$BUNDLE_DIR/summary.txt"

Step 2: Collect Environment Info

set -euo pipefail
cat >> "$BUNDLE_DIR/summary.txt" << 'EOF'
--- Environment ---
EOF

echo "Node: $(node --version 2>/dev/null || echo 'not installed')" >> "$BUNDLE_DIR/summary.txt"
echo "Python: $(python3 --version 2>/dev/null || echo 'not installed')" >> "$BUNDLE_DIR/summary.txt"
echo "OS: $(uname -sr)" >> "$BUNDLE_DIR/summary.txt"
echo "OpenAI SDK (npm): $(npm list openai 2>/dev/null | grep openai || echo 'not found')" >> "$BUNDLE_DIR/summary.txt"
echo "OpenAI SDK (pip): $(pip show openai 2>/dev/null | grep Version || echo 'not found')" >> "$BUNDLE_DIR/summary.txt"
echo "API Key: ${PERPLEXITY_API_KEY:+SET (prefix: ${PERPLEXITY_API_KEY:0:5}...)}${PERPLEXITY_API_KEY:-NOT SET}" >> "$BUNDLE_DIR/summary.txt"

Step 3: Test API Connectivity

set -euo pipefail
echo "" >> "$BUNDLE_DIR/summary.txt"
echo "--- API Connectivity ---" >> "$BUNDLE_DIR/summary.txt"

# DNS resolution
echo -n "DNS: " >> "$BUNDLE_DIR/summary.txt"
dig +short api.perplexity.ai >> "$BUNDLE_DIR/summary.txt" 2>&1

# API response test
echo -n "API Health: " >> "$BUNDLE_DIR/summary.txt"
curl -s -w "HTTP %{http_code} in %{time_total}s" \
  -o "$BUNDLE_DIR/api-response.json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${PERPLEXITY_API_KEY}" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"model":"sonar","messages":[{"role":"user","content":"ping"}],"max_tokens":5}' \
  https://api.perplexity.ai/chat/completions >> "$BUNDLE_DIR/summary.txt"
echo "" >> "$BUNDLE_DIR/summary.txt"

# Model test
echo -n "Model (sonar): " >> "$BUNDLE_DIR/summary.txt"
curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${PERPLEXITY_API_KEY}" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"model":"sonar","messages":[{"role":"user","content":"test"}],"max_tokens":5}' \
  https://api.perplexity.ai/chat/completions >> "$BUNDLE_DIR/summary.txt"
echo "" >> "$BUNDLE_DIR/summary.txt"

echo -n "Model (sonar-pro): " >> "$BUNDLE_DIR/summary.txt"
curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${PERPLEXITY_API_KEY}" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"model":"sonar-pro","messages":[{"role":"user","content":"test"}],"max_tokens":5}' \
  https://api.perplexity.ai/chat/completions >> "$BUNDLE_DIR/summary.txt"
echo "" >> "$BUNDLE_DIR/summary.txt"

Step 4: Collect Redacted Config

set -euo pipefail
echo "" >> "$BUNDLE_DIR/summary.txt"
echo "--- Configuration (redacted) ---" >> "$BUNDLE_DIR/summary.txt"

# Env vars (redacted)
env | grep -i "PERPLEXITY\|PPLX" | sed 's/=.*/=***REDACTED***/' >> "$BUNDLE_DIR/summary.txt" 2>/dev/null

# .env file (redacted)
if [ -f .env ]; then
  cat .env | sed 's/=.*/=***REDACTED***/' >> "$BUNDLE_DIR/config-redacted.txt"
fi

Step 5: Package Bundle

set -euo pipefail
tar -czf "$BUNDLE_DIR.tar.gz" "$BUNDLE_DIR"
rm -rf "$BUNDLE_DIR"
echo "Bundle created: $BUNDLE_DIR.tar.gz"
echo ""
echo "REVIEW BEFORE SHARING — verify no secrets leaked"

Output

perplexity-debug-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS.tar.gz containing:
- summary.txt — Environment, SDK versions, API connectivity results
- api-response.json — Raw API response (verify no sensitive query data)
- config-redacted.txt — Configuration with values masked

Sensitive Data Checklist

ALWAYS REDACT: API keys, tokens, passwords, PII, internal URLs. SAFE TO INCLUDE: Error messages, HTTP status codes, SDK versions, latency measurements, model names.

Error Handling

Item	Purpose	Included
SDK versions	Compatibility check	Yes
DNS resolution	Network routing	Yes
HTTP status codes	API availability	Yes
Response latency	Performance baseline	Yes
Model access	Key permissions	Yes

Resources

Next Steps

For rate limit issues, see perplexity-rate-limits.