It would be better to just return the common error
{ "REQUEST" : { "op" : "update", "args" : { "updates" : [ { "q" : { "_id" : ObjectId("530fadb98e0e468e10a335f7"), "x" : { "$xyz" : 1 } }, "u" : { "a" : 1 } } ] } }, "RESPONSE" : { "ok" : 1, "nModified" : 0, "n" : 0, "writeErrors" : [ { "index" : 0, "code" : 65, "errInfo" : { "causedBy" : [ { "index" : 0, "code" : 2, "errmsg" : "unknown operator: $xyz" }, { "index" : 0, "code" : 2, "errmsg" : "unknown operator: $xyz" } ] }, "errmsg" : "multiple errors for op : unknown operator: $xyz :: and :: unknown operator: $xyz" } ] } }