Repairing a file

Getting the file back

The response body is the file, with the same content type as the one you sent and a Content-Disposition naming it <name>-repaired.<ext>. Save the bytes as they are.

curl https://api.ihatecorruptfiles.xyz/v1/repair \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $IHCF_API_KEY" \
  -F file=@report.xlsx \
  -D - -o report-fixed.xlsx

What changed

Three headers describe the repair, so you do not need a second call to find out. X-Repair-Changed is true or false. X-Repair-Level is the last repair stage that changed something — XML, SCHEMA, SEMANTICS and so on — or NONE. X-Repair-Actions is base64 JSON with a count per stage and the fix codes:

import base64, json

summary = json.loads(base64.b64decode(response.headers["X-Repair-Actions"]))
# {"total": 3, "by_stage": {"schema": 1, "semantics": 2}, "codes": ["convert-text-to-number", …]}

For the full list of actions with the cells and parts they touch, run /v1/check on the original file.

What a repair promises

A file that needs nothing comes back byte for byte — X-Repair-Changed: false is a promise, not an estimate. A changed file is returned only after Microsoft's Open XML SDK accepts it. Advisory findings are never applied, and nothing is rewritten for style. How repairs work covers the levels.

When there is no file

If the file cannot be repaired, the response is a JSON problem instead: for example 422 encrypted_package for a password-protected file, or 422 openxml_validation_failed if the repaired file still failed validation — we would rather return nothing than a file Office rejects. Check the status code before saving the body.