principle-explicit-errors SKILL.md skillA
principle-explicit-errors from edbertchan/catstack is an agent skill: a SKILL.md folder an AI agent loads when a task calls for it.
mdr add edbertchan/catstack/principle-explicit-errors@git:20260929.5fa51a4Pins git:20260929.5fa51a4 in mdr.lock. Pin the fingerprint instead.
- Audit grade
- A, 17 of 17 checks passed
- Kind
- SKILL.md skill
- Repository
- edbertchan/catstack
- Path
corpus/skills/principle-explicit-errors/SKILL.md- Versions recorded
- 5
- Latest version
- git:20260929.5fa51a4, committed Sep 29, 2026
- First version recorded
- Sep 7, 2026
- Size
- 8,193 bytes
- Repository stars
- 6
- License
- none declared
Apply whenever code handles an exception (catch, suppress, translate, retry), decides to skip, drop, truncate, or stop early on data (an empty parse, a missing lookup, an unpriced row, a lookback or coverage cap, a loop that reads only the first source), or writes the text of an error, failure, or rejection message that a person or agent will read to fix the problem.
Collected from public GitHub. Every version is saved exactly as it was and never changes. Install it at an exact version with the mdr tool, and every file is checked before it reaches your agent. The main file is checked against the SHA-256 fingerprint recorded here, and the others against the fingerprints GitHub keeps for its source commit. The automatic checks below grade the latest version, and the same checks always give the same file the same grade.
What the file says
# Make errors and failures explicit
Every failure path must make its disposition visible: fail fast, propagate,
translate into a named domain result, or log the exception with its context.
Never suppress an exception. Silence is not a policy.
Each rule below restates standard practice (see Grounding).
## Exceptions
An empty handler, a comment-only handler, and a handler whose only action
is to discard the error (`catch {}`, `void err`, `except: pass`,
`.catch(() => {})`) hide the failure from callers, logs, tests, and
maintainers. Do not write them.
If the exception must not propagate — a diagnostic callback, a metric
write, a best-effort side path — log it, then continue. The log names the
operation and includes the original exception. A comment that says why you
caught it is not a log. `void err` is not a log.
Mechanical enforcement: `engine/hooks/explicit-failures` (advisory PreToolUse hook, on by default; its README lists the shapes it catches).
Before adding an exception path, answer in code or its nearby test: which
errors are expected, what happens to each, and how would an unexpected error
become visible? Catch specific exceptions, not a whole operation, and prefer
…Read the whole file at its exact version.
How to install
mdr add edbertchan/catstack/principle-explicit-errors@sha256:793d672bd1f4a5c5The line at the top of this page pins the label git:20260929.5fa51a4, which is what most people want. This one pins the sha256 fingerprint of the contents instead, so it survives a label being moved. Either way the exact version is written to mdr.lock, and mdr install downloads and checks those contents again, so it installs them exactly or stops with an error.
[](https://markdownregistry.com/a/art_gpfcuvmrojgi4xba)
3 badge image fetches in 30 days. What the badge shows.
Versions
The registry has recorded 5 versions of this file, between Sep 7, 2026 and Sep 29, 2026, about one every 5 days.
| version | committed | commit | size | audit | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| git:20260929.5fa51a4 latest | 2026-09-29 | 5fa51a4 | 8,193 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260911.86b6926 | 2026-09-11 | 86b6926 | 7,763 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260907.699d275 | 2026-09-07 | 699d275 | 5,684 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260907.aec19b8 | 2026-09-07 | aec19b8 | 3,618 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260907.d724ee0 | 2026-09-07 | d724ee0 | 3,476 B | A | view |
Audit of the latest version
- pass: Frontmatter block present
- pass: Frontmatter declares a name
- pass: Frontmatter declares a description
- pass: Size between 200 bytes and 200 KB (8193 bytes)
- pass: No zero-width or bidi control characters
- pass: No instruction hidden inside an HTML comment
- pass: No link to an exfiltration or paste host
- pass: No credential-shaped string
- pass: No instruction to send local credentials anywhere
- pass: No text hidden with inline styles
- pass: No prompt-injection phrasing
- pass: No curl or wget piped into a shell
- pass: No recursive delete of root, home or parent
- pass: No instruction to read or print local credentials
- pass: No base64 blob over 200 characters
- pass: No link to a raw IP address
- pass: No script tag
Source
edbertchan/catstack · 6 stars · license none declared · pushed 2026-10-22 · branch main
API
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_gpfcuvmrojgi4xba GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=edbertchan/catstack/principle-explicit-errors GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/793d672bd1f4a5c55a82a94f072a0fa0ec9ee094776af32e6427f002cae31654
Your AI assistant does the legwork. You hear about the deals worth your word. Hand yours the standing instructions at modelranch.com and it joins the network that reads files like this one.
Guides: the SKILL.md format and its required fields · what to check before you install a skill · how to pin a skill to an exact version · where to find agent skills · keeping a team on the same skills · which agent file does what.