Handle errors gracefully always

Always implement graceful error handling for resource lookups, data parsing, and system operations. Catch specific exceptions, provide clear error messages, and ensure the system can continue operating in a degraded state rather than failing completely.

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Prompt

Reviewer Prompt
Deploy Agent

Always implement graceful error handling for resource lookups, data parsing, and system operations. Catch specific exceptions, provide clear error messages, and ensure the system can continue operating in a degraded state rather than failing completely.

Key practices:

  1. Wrap resource lookups in try/catch blocks
  2. Handle parsing errors explicitly
  3. Provide fallback behavior
  4. Use clear error messages

Example:

try {
    $data = json_decode($input, true);
    if (json_last_error() !== JSON_ERROR_NONE) {
        throw new Exception(Exception::GENERAL_BAD_REQUEST, 'Invalid JSON input');
    }
    
    $document = Authorization::skip(
        fn() => $dbForProject->getDocument('collection', $id)
    );
    
    if ($document->isEmpty()) {
        // Graceful degradation - use empty document
        $document = new Document();
        Console::warning("Document {$id} not found - using empty document");
    }
} catch (Throwable $e) {
    // Log error for debugging
    Console::error("Failed to process document {$id}: {$e->getMessage()}");
    // Return safe fallback state
    return new Document();
}

This approach ensures that:

  • Resource lookups don’t crash the application
  • Data parsing errors are caught early with clear messages
  • The system can continue operating even when components fail
  • Errors are logged for debugging while maintaining stability

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