---
title: Ignoring errors
description: Ignore specific errors in Ruby applications to reduce noise and focus on actionable error reports.
url: https://docs.honeybadger.io/lib/ruby/errors/ignoring-errors/
---

Sometimes there are errors that you would rather not send to Honeybadger because they are not actionable or are handled internally. The *honeybadger* gem has multiple ways to ignore errors, depending on the situation:

* [Ignore by class](https://docs.honeybadger.io/lib/ruby/errors/ignoring-errors/#ignore-by-class)
* [Ignore by browser](https://docs.honeybadger.io/lib/ruby/errors/ignoring-errors/#ignore-by-browser)
* [Ignore by environment](https://docs.honeybadger.io/lib/ruby/errors/ignoring-errors/#ignore-by-environment)
* [Ignore programmatically](https://docs.honeybadger.io/lib/ruby/errors/ignoring-errors/#ignore-programmatically)

## Ignore by class

Some exceptions aren’t very useful and are best ignored. By default, we ignore the following:

```ruby
ActionController::RoutingError
AbstractController::ActionNotFound
ActionController::MethodNotAllowed
ActionController::UnknownHttpMethod
ActionController::NotImplemented
ActionController::UnknownFormat
ActionController::InvalidAuthenticityToken
ActionController::InvalidCrossOriginRequest
ActionDispatch::ParamsParser::ParseError
ActionController::BadRequest
ActionController::ParameterMissing
ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound
ActionController::UnknownAction
Rack::QueryParser::ParameterTypeError
Rack::QueryParser::InvalidParameterError
CGI::Session::CookieStore::TamperedWithCookie
Mongoid::Errors::DocumentNotFound
Sinatra::NotFound
```

To ignore additional errors, use the `exceptions.ignore` configuration option. The gem will ignore any exceptions matching the string, regex or class that you add to `exceptions.ignore`.

```yaml
exceptions:
  ignore:
    - "MyError"
    - !ruby/regexp "/Ignored$/"
    - !ruby/class "IgnoredError"
```

Subclasses of ignored classes will also be ignored, while strings and regexps are compared with the error class name only.

To override the default ignored exceptions, use the `exceptions.ignore_only` option instead:

```yaml
exceptions:
  ignore_only:
    - "MyError"
```

In this case *only* the MyError class will be ignored, and all the classes that were ignored by default will no longer be ignored.

## Ignore by browser

To ignore certain user agents, use the `exceptions.ignored_user_agents` config option. You can specify strings or regular expressions:

```yaml
exceptions:
  ignored_user_agents:
    - "Exact User Agent"
    - !ruby/regexp "/Bing/i"
```

## Ignore by environment

Honeybadger ignores errors in development and test environments by default. You can enable or disable error reporting for a specific environment by using the `[environment name].report_data` configuration option:

```yaml
staging:
  report_data: false
```

You may alternatively set `HONEYBADGER_REPORT_DATA=false` in your app’s ENV.

We ask that you not enable error reporting for your test environment. It doesn’t do anyone any good. :)

## Ignore programmatically

To ignore errors with some custom logic, you can use the `before_notify` callback. This method lets you add a callback that will be run every time an exception is about to be reported to Honeybadger. If your callback calls the `notice.halt!` method, the exception won’t be reported:

```ruby
# Here's how you might ignore exceptions based on their error message:
Honeybadger.configure do |config|
  config.before_notify do |notice|
    notice.halt! if notice.error_message =~ /sensitive data/
  end
end
```

You can access any attribute on the `notice` argument by using the `[]` syntax.

```ruby
Honeybadger.configure do |config|
  config.before_notify do |notice|
    notice.halt! if notice.exception.class < MyError &&
      notice.params[:name] =~ "bob" &&
      notice.context[:current_user_id] != 1
  end
end
```

---

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