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Agent skill

Error Handling Patterns

by wshobson in wshobson/agents

Master error handling patterns across languages including exceptions, Result types, error propagation, and graceful degradation to build resilient applications.

MITAuto-check passedDevelopment

Install Error Handling Patterns

skills CLI
$ npx skills add wshobson/agents --skill error-handling-patterns -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install wshobson/agents error-handling-patterns --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/wshobson/agents.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/plugins/developer-essentials/skills/error-handling-patterns .claude/skills/error-handling-patterns && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
error-handling-patterns
GitHub stars
40k
Used in
10 other repos
Token cost
~1k tokens
SKILL.md length
290 words
Files
2 (incl. references)
Skills in repo
142
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

Master error handling patterns across languages including exceptions, Result types, error propagation, and graceful degradation to build resilient applications.

  • Works in 2 steps: Error Handling Philosophies → Error Categories
  • Implementing error handling
  • SKILL.md covers When to Use This Skill, Core Concepts, Detailed patterns and worked… and Best Practices, plus 1 more section
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

Error Handling Patterns is an agent skill from wshobson/agents. Master error handling patterns across languages including exceptions, Result types, error propagation, and graceful degradation to build resilient applications. Use when implementing error handling, designing APIs, or improving application reliability.

Its SKILL.md is about 1k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. The skill folder holds 2 other files, including reference files (for example `references/details.md`).

It sits in Development, covering Error handling. The repository describes itself as: Multi-harness agentic plugin marketplace for Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, OpenCode, GitHub Copilot, Google Antigravity, and Pi. The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

  • Implementing error handling
  • Improving application reliability

Example prompts

  • “/error-handling-patterns”

Requirements

  • Python 3

Workflow steps

2 steps, taken from the step headings in SKILL.md.

  1. Error Handling Philosophies
  2. Error Categories

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 46891e7. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md (its code samples are python).

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md.

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Error Handling Patterns loads about 1k tokens when it runs, and up to ~4.2k if it reads all its reference files. Until then it costs about 69 tokens; SKILL.md has 290 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~69
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~1k
With references · SKILL.md plus every file in references/, read only if the agent opens them
~4.2k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from wshobson/agents at commit 46891e7, republished under its MIT licence (© wshobson). 290 words, ~1,023 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/error-handling-patterns/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder). This skill also uses 1 other file; get the full folder from GitHub.
name
error-handling-patterns
description
Master error handling patterns across languages including exceptions, Result types, error propagation, and graceful degradation to build resilient applications. Use when implementing error handling, designing APIs, or improving application reliability.

Error Handling Patterns

Build resilient applications with robust error handling strategies that gracefully handle failures and provide excellent debugging experiences.

When to Use This Skill

  • Implementing error handling in new features
  • Designing error-resilient APIs
  • Debugging production issues
  • Improving application reliability
  • Creating better error messages for users and developers
  • Implementing retry and circuit breaker patterns
  • Handling async/concurrent errors
  • Building fault-tolerant distributed systems

Core Concepts

1. Error Handling Philosophies

Exceptions vs Result Types:

  • Exceptions: Traditional try-catch, disrupts control flow
  • Result Types: Explicit success/failure, functional approach
  • Error Codes: C-style, requires discipline
  • Option/Maybe Types: For nullable values

When to Use Each:

  • Exceptions: Unexpected errors, exceptional conditions
  • Result Types: Expected errors, validation failures
  • Panics/Crashes: Unrecoverable errors, programming bugs
2. Error Categories

Recoverable Errors:

  • Network timeouts
  • Missing files
  • Invalid user input
  • API rate limits

Unrecoverable Errors:

  • Out of memory
  • Stack overflow
  • Programming bugs (null pointer, etc.)

Detailed patterns and worked examples

Detailed pattern documentation lives in references/details.md. Read that file when the navigation tier above is insufficient.

Best Practices

  1. Fail Fast: Validate input early, fail quickly
  2. Preserve Context: Include stack traces, metadata, timestamps
  3. Meaningful Messages: Explain what happened and how to fix it
  4. Log Appropriately: Error = log, expected failure = don't spam logs
  5. Handle at Right Level: Catch where you can meaningfully handle
  6. Clean Up Resources: Use try-finally, context managers, defer
  7. Don't Swallow Errors: Log or re-throw, don't silently ignore
  8. Type-Safe Errors: Use typed errors when possible
python
# Good error handling example
def process_order(order_id: str) -> Order:
    """Process order with comprehensive error handling."""
    try:
        # Validate input
        if not order_id:
            raise ValidationError("Order ID is required")

        # Fetch order
        order = db.get_order(order_id)
        if not order:
            raise NotFoundError("Order", order_id)

        # Process payment
        try:
            payment_result = payment_service.charge(order.total)
        except PaymentServiceError as e:
            # Log and wrap external service error
            logger.error(f"Payment failed for order {order_id}: {e}")
            raise ExternalServiceError(
                f"Payment processing failed",
                service="payment_service",
                details={"order_id": order_id, "amount": order.total}
            ) from e

        # Update order
        order.status = "completed"
        order.payment_id = payment_result.id
        db.save(order)

        return order

    except ApplicationError:
        # Re-raise known application errors
        raise
    except Exception as e:
        # Log unexpected errors
        logger.exception(f"Unexpected error processing order {order_id}")
        raise ApplicationError(
            "Order processing failed",
            code="INTERNAL_ERROR"
        ) from e

Common Pitfalls

  • Catching Too Broadly: except Exception hides bugs
  • Empty Catch Blocks: Silently swallowing errors
  • Logging and Re-throwing: Creates duplicate log entries
  • Not Cleaning Up: Forgetting to close files, connections
  • Poor Error Messages: "Error occurred" is not helpful
  • Returning Error Codes: Use exceptions or Result types
  • Ignoring Async Errors: Unhandled promise rejections

© wshobson, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

SKILL.md and 1 other file (references) in plugins/developer-essentials/skills/error-handling-patterns of wshobson/agents.

  • SKILL.md
  • references/details.md

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 46891e7

Used in 10 other repositories

We found 22 copies of this SKILL.md (exact, near-identical or edited) in other folders, from 10 other GitHub owners. This page covers the copy in wshobson/agents, which our catalogue first saw on October 7, 2026.

Compare with similar skills

Error Handling Patterns next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Error Handling Patterns compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Error Handling Patterns this skillwshobson/agents40k10 repos~1kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Mole Bug Patternstw93/Mole69k—~2kAutomated safety check: PassGPL-3.0
Native Data FetchingCherryHQ/cherry-studio-app4k6 repos~2.9kAutomated safety check: NotesMIT
Rust Best Practicesfarm-fe/farm5.6k3 repos~1.1kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
R Function Input Validationtidyverse/dplyr5.1k1 repos~2.3kAutomated safety check: PassCustom licence
Error Handlingmicrosoft/data-formulator18k—~3.8kAutomated safety check: PassMIT

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Categories

Questions about Error Handling Patterns

What does Error Handling Patterns do?

Master error handling patterns across languages including exceptions, Result types, error propagation, and graceful degradation to build resilient applications. Error Handling Patterns is an agent skill from wshobson/agents. Master error handling patterns across languages including exceptions, Result types, error propagation, and graceful degradation to build resilient applications.

When should I use Error Handling Patterns?

Error Handling Patterns fits situations like: implementing error handling; improving application reliability.

How do I install Error Handling Patterns in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add wshobson/agents --skill error-handling-patterns -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (plugins/developer-essentials/skills/error-handling-patterns in wshobson/agents) into .claude/skills/error-handling-patterns in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Error Handling Patterns in Codex?

Run `npx skills add wshobson/agents --skill error-handling-patterns -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (plugins/developer-essentials/skills/error-handling-patterns in wshobson/agents) into .agents/skills/error-handling-patterns in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Error Handling Patterns in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add wshobson/agents --skill error-handling-patterns -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/error-handling-patterns, .gemini/skills/error-handling-patterns, .github/skills/error-handling-patterns and .opencode/skills/error-handling-patterns in your project.

What does Error Handling Patterns need to run?

SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: Error Handling Patterns is instructions for the agent only. Our summary lists: Python 3.

Does Error Handling Patterns access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Any network use would come from the scripts or tools the agent runs. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Error Handling Patterns safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Error Handling Patterns use?

Error Handling Patterns is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Error Handling Patterns use?

About 1k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 4.1k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full. Its references folder adds about 3.1k tokens, read only when the agent opens those files.

What are the alternatives to Error Handling Patterns?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Error Handling Patterns: Mole Bug Patterns (tw93/Mole, 69k stars), Native Data Fetching (CherryHQ/cherry-studio-app, 4k stars), Rust Best Practices (farm-fe/farm, 5.6k stars) and R Function Input Validation (tidyverse/dplyr, 5.1k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Error Handling Patterns?

wshobson (a GitHub user) maintains it in wshobson/agents, which has 40,254 GitHub stars. The repository holds 142 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 5, 2026.

Source: wshobson/agents on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.