rust-error-handling

The best way to handle Rust library errors is by defining canonical error structs using thiserror, ensuring structured error types and clear propagation across boundaries. This reduces bugs and improves diagnostic messaging.

Use thiserror when designing distinct error types for library crates, and use anyhow for application code where you need ergonomic error propagation with contextual messages across layers without defining custom error enums.

Propagate Rust errors with context by adopting anyhow or eyre to wrap errors with contextual messaging, ensuring rich diagnostics and safe recovery across library and application boundaries without relying on unwrap or expect.

Avoid unwrap and expect in production Rust code because they cause panics on unrecoverable failures. Structured error handling reserves panics for truly unrecoverable states and uses canonical error types for safe recovery and better diagnostics.

Yes, you can use eyre alongside canonical Rust error types to enhance contextual error propagation and rich diagnostics, providing an ergonomic alternative to anyhow for application-level error handling and recovery.