error-handling SKILL.md skillA
error-handling from ericrisco/rsc-harness is an agent skill: a SKILL.md folder an AI agent loads when a task calls for it.
mdr add ericrisco/rsc-harness/error-handling@git:20260729.a707f94Pins git:20260729.a707f94 in mdr.lock. Pin the fingerprint instead.
- Audit grade
- A, 17 of 17 checks passed
- Kind
- SKILL.md skill
- Repository
- ericrisco/rsc-harness
- Path
skills/error-handling/SKILL.md- Versions recorded
- 3
- Latest version
- git:20260729.a707f94, committed Jul 29, 2026
- First version recorded
- Jun 2, 2026
- Size
- 12,778 bytes
- Repository stars
- 236
- License
- MIT
Use when designing the reaction to a class of failures — typed error taxonomies, retry/backoff/timeout policy, circuit breakers, React/Next error boundaries, and the user-message vs operator-log split. NOT diagnosing one specific crash (that is debug), NOT logs/metrics/traces (that is observability), NOT the wire error envelope (that is api-design).
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
# Error handling — classify, contain, surface
You are designing what happens *whenever anything in a class breaks*, not chasing
one crash (that is [`debug`](../debug/SKILL.md)). Every failure gets classified,
contained, and surfaced — never swallowed. The deliverable, in that order: a typed
error taxonomy, a retry policy with caps and jitter, boundary placement, and a
two-audience message contract — never a pile of `try { … } catch {}`.
## Step 1 — Model failure as a taxonomy
Bucket every failure into one of three kinds. The bucket dictates the reaction;
get the bucket wrong and every downstream decision is wrong too.
| Bucket | Examples | Retry? | Tell the user | Tell the operator |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| **Domain / expected** | insufficient funds, slot taken, validation failed | No | Yes, actionable | info — it is normal |
| **Infrastructure / transient** | timeout, 503, connection reset, 429 | Yes (capped) | "temporary, retrying" | warn — watch the rate |
| **Programmer error / bug** | null deref, bad assertion, type error | No | generic "something broke" + id | error — page if frequent |
### Result vs throw
Decide per call site, not per codebase:
…Read the whole file at its exact version.
How to install
mdr add ericrisco/rsc-harness/error-handling@sha256:1195f482283b818fThe line at the top of this page pins the label git:20260729.a707f94, 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_pu53w4yycwbvwwba)
4 badge image fetches in 30 days. What the badge shows.
Versions
The registry has recorded 3 versions of this file, between Jun 2, 2026 and Jul 29, 2026, about one every 29 days.
| version | committed | commit | size | audit | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| git:20260729.a707f94 latest | 2026-07-29 | a707f94 | 12,778 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260602.6a1b055 | 2026-06-02 | 6a1b055 | 14,845 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260602.75f7184 | 2026-06-02 | 75f7184 | 14,798 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 (12778 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
ericrisco/rsc-harness · 236 stars · license MIT · pushed 2026-10-21 · branch main
API
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_pu53w4yycwbvwwba GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=ericrisco/rsc-harness/error-handling GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/1195f482283b818f73d0f87dd5ed9e7ada71f4c37225e8c0774d9b7b3fab366c
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.
More from ericrisco/rsc-harness
Every file in ericrisco/rsc-harness