laurigates/code-silent-degradation

Silent Degradation Scanner

Detect code patterns where operations complete "successfully" but produce empty or useless results because preconditions are silently unmet.

When to Use This Skill

| Use this skill when... | Use /code:review instead when... | |------------------------|-----------------------------------| | A feature reports success but produces nothing | You need general code quality review | | Scan/batch operations return 0 results silently | You want security or performance review | | Users see green success banners for empty outcomes | You need SOLID principles assessment | | Config-dependent features skip without warning | You want test coverage analysis | | Multi-detector/multi-step operations silently skip steps | You need architecture review |

Context

• Scan path: $ARGUMENTS (defaults to current directory if empty)
• Source files: !find . -maxdepth 1 \( -name "*.ts" -o -name "*.tsx" -o -name "*.js" -o -name "*.jsx" -o -name "*.py" -o -name "*.go" -o -name "*.rs" \) -type f
• Config patterns: !find . -maxdepth 1 \( -name ".env*" -o -name "config.*" -o -name "settings.*" \) -type f

Parameters

Parse from $ARGUMENTS:

• PATH: Directory or file to scan (defaults to .)
• --fix: Apply recommended fixes (add precondition checks, warning messages, status indicators)

Execution

Execute this silent degradation scan:

Step 1: Discover source files

Use Glob to find source files in the target path:

• **/*.ts, **/*.tsx, **/*.js, **/*.jsx for TypeScript/JavaScript
• **/*.py for Python
• **/*.go for Go
• **/*.rs for Rust

Exclude node_modules, dist, build, .git, vendor, __pycache__ directories.

Step 2: Scan for silent degradation patterns

Search each source file for these five pattern categories. Use Grep and Read to find matches.

Pattern 1: Silent skip on missing config

Code that checks for a config value and silently returns empty results when absent.

Indicators:

• if (!apiKey) or if not api_key: followed by return [] or return 0 or continue
• Environment variable checks that skip entire code paths without logging
• Feature flag checks that silently disable functionality
• process.env.X or os.environ.get() or os.Getenv() used in conditions that gate result-producing logic

Example of the problem:

// Silently returns nothing when Gemini isn't configured
if (!config.geminiApiKey) {
  return { suggestions: [] };  // No warning, no status
}

Pattern 2: Success message on zero results

Code that reports success regardless of whether meaningful work was performed.

Indicators:

• Success/completion messages that don't distinguish between "found results" and "found nothing because preconditions failed"
• Toast/notification/banner showing success with count === 0
• Log messages like "Completed" or "Done" or "Scan finished" when result set is empty
• HTTP 200 responses with empty arrays where the emptiness indicates a configuration problem, not genuinely zero matches

Example of the problem:

// Green banner whether it found 50 items or 0
toast.success(`Scan completed. Created ${results.length} suggestions.`);

Pattern 3: Multi-step operations with silent step skipping

Operations composed of multiple detectors/processors/steps where individual steps are skipped without surfacing this to the caller.

Indicators:

• Loop over detectors/analyzers/processors that catches errors and continues
• Skipped steps added to a list but not surfaced in the UI
• try/catch blocks that swallow errors and continue iteration
• Conditional execution of steps where skip reasons aren't propagated to the final result

Example of the problem:

for (const detector of detectors) {
  if (!detector.isAvailable()) {
    skipped.push(detector.name);  // Tracked but never shown
    continue;
  }
  results.push(...detector.run());
}
// skipped list exists but UX ignores it

Pattern 4: Missing precondition validation

Functions that require preconditions (data present, services configured, dependencies available) but don't validate or communicate them upfront.

Indicators:

• Functions that query a data source and produce results only if specific data shapes exist (e.g., "entities with embeddings", "orphan records", "records older than N days")
• No upfront check for whether the precondition is satisfiable
• No documentation or runtime message explaining what data/config is needed
• Database queries that naturally return empty when prerequisite data hasn't been set up

Example of the problem:

# Returns empty if no themes have embeddings - but doesn't check or warn
def find_similar_themes(threshold=0.85):
    themes = db.query(Theme).filter(Theme.embedding.isnot(None)).all()
    # If no embeddings exist, this silently returns []
    pairs = [(a, b) for a, b in combinations(themes, 2)
             if cosine_similarity(a.embedding, b.embedding) > threshold]
    return pairs

Pattern 5: Degraded mode without indication

Code that falls back to a degraded mode of operation (fewer features, reduced functionality) without any indication to the user that they're getting a partial experience.

Indicators:

• Feature availability checks that reduce functionality without notification
• Graceful degradation that's invisible to users
• Optional dependency checks that silently disable capabilities
• API version checks that fall back to limited functionality

Example of the problem:

// User has no idea they're getting a degraded scan
const detectors = [basicDetector];
if (geminiKey) detectors.push(aiDetector);      // silently omitted
if (hasEmbeddings) detectors.push(simDetector);  // silently omitted
return runDetectors(detectors);  // runs 1 of 3 with no indication

Step 3: Classify and report findings

For each finding, report:

| Field | Content | |-------|---------| | File | file:line reference | | Pattern | Which of the 5 patterns it matches | | Severity | high (success message on empty), medium (silent skip), low (missing validation) | | What happens | Describe the silent failure from the user's perspective | | Preconditions | List what must be true for the code to produce results | | Fix | Specific code change to surface the degradation |

Severity guide:

• High: User sees explicit success messaging when nothing worked (Pattern 2, 3)
• Medium: Functionality silently disabled based on config/environment (Pattern 1, 5)
• Low: Missing upfront validation that would help users understand requirements (Pattern 4)

Step 4: Generate summary

Print a summary table:

Silent Degradation Scan: <path>

| Pattern                    | Findings | Severity |
|----------------------------|----------|----------|
| Silent config skip         | N        | medium   |
| Success on zero results    | N        | high     |
| Silent step skipping       | N        | high     |
| Missing precondition check | N        | low      |
| Degraded mode hidden       | N        | medium   |

Total: N findings across M files

Step 5: Apply fixes (if --fix)

If --fix is specified, apply these fixes for each finding:

1. Silent config skip: Add warning log before the early return
2. Success on zero results: Change success message to distinguish "nothing found" from "couldn't check" and surface skip reasons
3. Silent step skipping: Propagate skipped step information to the return value and surface in UI
4. Missing precondition check: Add upfront validation with descriptive error messages listing what's needed
5. Degraded mode hidden: Add status indicator showing which capabilities are active vs disabled

After applying fixes, list all changes made with file:line references.

Recommended Fixes Reference

Fix: Add precondition status panel

Before running multi-detector operations, check and display precondition status:

// Before
const results = await runScan();
toast.success(`Done. ${results.length} found.`);

// After
const status = checkPreconditions();
if (status.issues.length > 0) {
  showPreconditionPanel(status);  // "Gemini: not configured, Embeddings: 0 themes"
}
const results = await runScan();
toast.info(`Scan: ${results.active}/${results.total} detectors ran. ${results.length} found.`);

Fix: Distinguish "nothing found" from "couldn't check"

// Before
return { success: true, count: results.length };

// After
return {
  success: true,
  count: results.length,
  skipped: skippedDetectors,
  degraded: activeDetectors.length < totalDetectors,
  missingPreconditions: missingPrereqs,
};

Agentic Optimizations

| Context | Command | |---------|---------| | Quick scan | /code:silent-degradation src/ | | Scan and fix | /code:silent-degradation src/ --fix | | Specific file | /code:silent-degradation src/features/scanner.ts |

Related Configure Skills

• If error tracking not configured → /configure:sentry for error monitoring
• If feature flags not managed → /configure:feature-flags for controlled rollouts