rust-error-handling

To handle errors in Rust, use `anyhow` for application-level error management and `thiserror` for library-level structured error enums. This combination provides flexible context-rich errors and distinct matchable domain-specific error types.

Use `thiserror` when building libraries to define custom, matchable error enums for structured domain errors. Use `anyhow` in application code for convenient, context-rich error handling where you don't need to programmatically match every error variant.

The best way to add context to Rust errors is by using `.context()` and `.with_context()` methods from the `anyhow` crate. This attaches descriptive information to errors during propagation, significantly improving debugging and traceability.

Unwrapping causes problems because it causes the program to panic instead of gracefully managing the failure. Proper Rust error handling avoids this anti-pattern by returning `Result` types and using context to preserve error details instead of losing them.

Create custom error types in Rust by defining enums and deriving `thiserror::Error`. This allows you to structure distinct errors for scenarios like configuration or network failures, making them matchable and providing clear, actionable messages.

Yes, you can convert different error types into a single `anyhow::Result` in application code. This allows you to seamlessly propagate various underlying errors while attaching context to track exactly where and why the failure occurred.