error-handling-patterns

Error handling in API design requires choosing between explicit and implicit signaling strategies like exceptions, result types, or error codes to ensure callers can properly handle recoverability and maintain robust software reliability.

Choosing between exceptions and result types depends on your language's approach, such as Go's errors-as-values or TypeScript's discriminated unions. Analyze tradeoffs between explicit signaling and recoverability frameworks to select the most maintainable pattern.

To determine if an error is recoverable, analyze the error context within your recoverability framework to decide if the caller can safely respond or if the failure requires terminating the operation for software reliability.

Wrapping third-party errors involves applying error handling patterns that translate external failures into your application's explicit signaling structure, preventing common antipatterns and preserving the original context for robust API design.

Common error handling antipatterns include using implicit signaling when explicit error reporting is required, ignoring recoverability analysis, and leaking unwrapped third-party errors, all of which degrade software robustness and maintainability.