Fail Fast

Kind: principle

Layer: Correctness Core

Record: architecture:fail-fast

Severity: recommended

Scope: input, startup, invariant boundary

Canonical: Ontology

A design rule that invalid input or state stops the operation at the point it is detected, with an explicit error.

Listed in Architecture principles, after Defensive Programming and before Fail Safe.

Requires

• Preconditions
• Validation

Reinforces

• Correctness
• Observability

Enables

• Early Defect Detection

Conflicts with

• Silent Failure
• Silent Data Corruption

In tension with

• Graceful Degradation

Tensions

• Fail Fast / Graceful Degradation

Contracts

• Correctness Core

Violated by

• Exception Swallowing

Refactored by

• Precondition Check
• Fail Fast or Fall Back

Severity

• recommended

Category

• Error Handling / Resilience

Enforced by

• rules/eslint/strings-diagram-identifiers.eslint.rule.ts
• rules/stylelint/no-unresolved-import.stylelint.rule.ts

Reinforced by

• Defensive Programming

Enabled by

• Schema Validation
• Input Validation

Linked from

• Validation gates
• The gate holds the line
• Fail at the boundary
• Every record has a kind
• Execution joins the halves
• A tension has a mechanism
• Separate, trade, or mitigate
• Debt and leverage
• The principle architecture
• Architectural rules and principles
• Anti-patterns
• Contracts / Interfaces / Compatibility
• Correctness / Determinism / Verification
• Error Handling / Resilience
• Observability / Auditability / Traceability
• Schema / Canonical Data / Semantics
• Security / Privacy / Compliance / Governance
• Core Vocabulary
• Correctness / Determinism / Verification
• Error Handling / Resilience
• Architectural Clusters
• Severity levels
• The resolutions