---
title: error.js
description: API reference for the error.js special file.
related:
  title: Learn more about error handling
  links:
    - app/building-your-application/routing/error-handling
---

An **error** file defines an error UI boundary for a route segment.

It is useful for catching **unexpected** errors that occur in Server Components and Client Components and displaying a fallback UI.

```tsx filename="app/dashboard/error.tsx" switcher
'use client' // Error components must be Client Components

import { useEffect } from 'react'

export default function Error({
  error,
  reset,
}: {
  error: Error & { digest?: string }
  reset: () => void
}) {
  useEffect(() => {
    // Log the error to an error reporting service
    console.error(error)
  }, [error])

  return (
    <div>
      <h2>Something went wrong!</h2>
      <button
        onClick={
          // Attempt to recover by trying to re-render the segment
          () => reset()
        }
      >
        Try again
      </button>
    </div>
  )
}
```

```jsx filename="app/dashboard/error.js" switcher
'use client' // Error components must be Client Components

import { useEffect } from 'react'

export default function Error({ error, reset }) {
  useEffect(() => {
    // Log the error to an error reporting service
    console.error(error)
  }, [error])

  return (
    <div>
      <h2>Something went wrong!</h2>
      <button
        onClick={
          // Attempt to recover by trying to re-render the segment
          () => reset()
        }
      >
        Try again
      </button>
    </div>
  )
}
```

## Props

### `error`

An instance of an [`Error`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Error) object forwarded to the `error.js` Client Component.

#### `error.message`

The error message.

- For errors forwarded from Client Components, this will be the original Error's message.
- For errors forwarded from Server Components, this will be a generic error message to avoid leaking sensitive details. `errors.digest` can be used to match the corresponding error in server-side logs.

#### `error.digest`

An automatically generated hash of the error thrown in a Server Component. It can be used to match the corresponding error in server-side logs.

### `reset`

A function to reset the error boundary. When executed, the function will try to re-render the Error boundary's contents. If successful, the fallback error component is replaced with the result of the re-render.

Can be used to prompt the user to attempt to recover from the error.

> **Good to know**:
>
> - `error.js` boundaries must be **[Client Components](/docs/getting-started/react-essentials)**.
> - In Production builds, errors forwarded from Server Components will be stripped of specific error details to avoid leaking sensitive information.
> - An `error.js` boundary will **not** handle errors thrown in a `layout.js` component in the **same** segment because the error boundary is nested **inside** that layouts component.
>   - To handle errors for a specific layout, place an `error.js` file in the layouts parent segment.
>   - To handle errors within the root layout or template, use a variation of `error.js` called `app/global-error.js`.

## `global-error.js`

To specifically handle errors in root `layout.js`, use a variation of `error.js` called `app/global-error.js` located in the root `app` directory.

```tsx filename="app/global-error.tsx" switcher
'use client'

export default function GlobalError({
  error,
  reset,
}: {
  error: Error & { digest?: string }
  reset: () => void
}) {
  return (
    <html>
      <body>
        <h2>Something went wrong!</h2>
        <button onClick={() => reset()}>Try again</button>
      </body>
    </html>
  )
}
```

```jsx filename="app/global-error.js" switcher
'use client'

export default function GlobalError({ error, reset }) {
  return (
    <html>
      <body>
        <h2>Something went wrong!</h2>
        <button onClick={() => reset()}>Try again</button>
      </body>
    </html>
  )
}
```

> **Good to know**:
>
> - `global-error.js` replaces the root `layout.js` when active and so **must** define its own `<html>` and `<body>` tags.
> - While designing error UI, you may find it helpful to use the [React Developer Tools](https://react.dev/learn/react-developer-tools) to manually toggle Error boundaries.

## Version History

| Version   | Changes                    |
| --------- | -------------------------- |
| `v13.1.0` | `global-error` introduced. |
| `v13.0.0` | `error` introduced.        |
