Different types of errors require different handling strategies. Classify errors into categories and apply appropriate response patterns: fail fast for user-actionable problems, retry with backoff for transient issues, and graceful degradation for non-critical failures. **Error Classification Guidelines:** - **Client errors (4xx except 429)**: Fail fast - these indicate user or configuration problems that won't resolve with retries - **Network/timeout errors**: Retry with exponential backoff - these are often transient - **Server errors (5xx) and rate limits (429)**: Retry with backoff - server may recover - **User-facing functionality**: Fail fast so users know when features aren't working - **Background/telemetry operations**: Graceful degradation to avoid disrupting core functionality **Example Implementation:** ```typescript const shouldRetry = (err) => { // Network errors - retry if (!err.statusCode) return true; // Rate limits and server errors - retry if (err.statusCode === 429 || err.statusCode >= 500) return true; // Client errors - fail fast return false; }; // For user-facing features - fail fast if (userWantsTelemetry && !telemetryWorking) { throw new Error('Telemetry failed - user should know'); } // For background operations - graceful degradation try { await backgroundTelemetry(); } catch (error) { console.debug('Background telemetry failed:', error); // Continue execution } ``` This approach prevents infinite retry loops on permanent failures while ensuring transient issues are handled gracefully and users are informed when they need to take action.