Why is Phoenix default ErrorJSON using plural errors with a map as the value?

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1

Hello,

By default Phoenix will generate this on a new project:

# def render("500.json", _assigns) do
#   %{errors: %{detail: "Internal Server Error"}}
# end

def render(template, _assigns) do
  %{errors: %{detail: Phoenix.Controller.status_message_from_template(template)}}
end

Not sure if it is because of an english thing (not my native language) but to me it seems that a map would describe a single error ; plus we are giving the detail for one error.

When I’ll have multiple errors, on an Ecto changeset for instance, I’ll generally return something like that:

%{
  error: %{
    message: "Invalid Request",
    detail: %{
      errors: [] # ... changeset errors as a list
    }
  }
}

Or maybe something like this:

%{
  errors: [
    %{
      message: "Invalid Request",
      detail: [] # ... changeset errors as a list
    }
  ]
}

But I don’t understand the default layout, which is one of the first things I change on a new project.

What is the rationale behind this?

Thank you.