Error Handling

Kind: principle

Layer: Correctness Core

Record: architecture:error-handling

Severity: mandatory

Scope: function, module, service

Canonical: Ontology

A design rule that every error is either handled with its context kept, or propagated as a typed error the caller must handle.

Listed in Architecture principles, after Robustness Principle and before Error Boundaries.

Requires

• Error Model
• Observability

Reinforces

• Resilience
• Correctness

Enables

• Controlled Failure

Conflicts with

• Exception Swallowing
• Exception Control Flow

In tension with

• Simplicity

Tensions

• Error Handling / Simplicity

Violated by

• Exception Swallowing
• Silent Failure

Refactored by

• Introduce Typed Result
• Distributed Tracing

Severity

• mandatory

Category

• Error Handling / Resilience

Enforced by

• rules/eslint/no-swallowed-failure.eslint.rule.ts
• rules/eslint/require-signal-guard.eslint.rule.ts

Required by

• Defensive Programming
• Fault Tolerance

Linked from

• Integrating algorithms
• Execution joins the halves
• Anti-patterns
• Correctness / Determinism / Verification
• Error Handling / Resilience
• Observability / Auditability / Traceability
• Core Vocabulary
• Error Handling / Resilience
• Quality Attributes
• Severity levels
• The resolutions