rileyhilliard/handling-errors

Handling Errors

Error Categories

| Type | Examples | Handling | | ------------ | ---------------------------------- | --------------------------- | | Expected | Validation, Not found, Unauthorized| Return Result type, log info| | Transient| Network timeout, Rate limit | Retry with backoff, log warn| | Unexpected| Null reference, DB crash | Log error, show support ID | | Critical | Auth down, Payment gateway offline | Circuit breaker, alert |

Fail Fast vs Degrade Gracefully

Fail fast for critical dependencies:

await connectToDatabase(); // Throws on failure - app can't run without it

Degrade gracefully for optional features:

const prefs = await loadPreferences(userId).catch(() => DEFAULT_PREFS);

Log at the Right Layer

// ❌ Logging at every layer = same error 3x
async function fetchData() {
  try { return await fetch(url); }
  catch (e) { console.error("Fetch failed:", e); throw e; }
}

// ✅ Log once where handled
async function fetchData() {
  const response = await fetch(url);
  if (!response.ok) throw new Error(`HTTP ${response.status}`);
  return response;
}
// Top level logs the error once

Language-Specific Patterns

• TypeScript/React: See references/typescript-react.md for Error Boundaries, typed errors, Result pattern, UI display
• Python: See references/python.md for EAFP, exception chaining, context managers
• Go: See references/go.md for explicit error returns, wrapping with %w, sentinel errors

Anti-Patterns

| Pattern | Problem | Fix | |---------|---------|-----| | Empty catch blocks | Hides errors | Log or re-throw | | return false on error | Loses context | Return Result type | | Generic "Error" messages | Undebuggable | Include what/why/context | | Logging same error at each layer | Log pollution | Log once at boundary | | Bare except: / catch (e) all | Catches system signals | Catch specific types |