Error Handling Patterns

Build resilient applications with robust error handling strategies that gracefully handle failures and provide excellent debugging experiences.

When to Use This Skill

• Implementing error handling in new features
• Designing error-resilient APIs
• Debugging production issues
• Improving application reliability
• Creating better error messages for users and developers
• Implementing retry and circuit breaker patterns
• Handling async/concurrent errors
• Building fault-tolerant distributed systems

Core Concepts

1. Error Handling Philosophies

Exceptions vs Result Types:

• Exceptions: Traditional try-catch, disrupts control flow
• Result Types: Explicit success/failure, functional approach
• Error Codes: C-style, requires discipline
• Option/Maybe Types: For nullable values

When to Use Each:

• Exceptions: Unexpected errors, exceptional conditions
• Result Types: Expected errors, validation failures
• Panics/Crashes: Unrecoverable errors, programming bugs

2. Error Categories

Recoverable Errors:

• Network timeouts
• Missing files
• Invalid user input
• API rate limits

Unrecoverable Errors:

• Out of memory
• Stack overflow
• Programming bugs (null pointer, etc.)

Detailed patterns and worked examples

Detailed pattern documentation lives in references/details.md. Read that file when the navigation tier above is insufficient.

Best Practices

1. Fail Fast: Validate input early, fail quickly
2. Preserve Context: Include stack traces, metadata, timestamps
3. Meaningful Messages: Explain what happened and how to fix it
4. Log Appropriately: Error = log, expected failure = don't spam logs
5. Handle at Right Level: Catch where you can meaningfully handle
6. Clean Up Resources: Use try-finally, context managers, defer
7. Don't Swallow Errors: Log or re-throw, don't silently ignore
8. : Use typed errors when possible