error-handling-rules

A set of error-handling rules that replaces routine console messages with structured logging and user-facing errors, except in command-line entry points and tests.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it when writing or reviewing error paths, logging, validation failures, and command-line or test output.
Why use it?
It keeps application output clean and gives failures clearer categories and recovery guidance.

Cursor rule for Cursor

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add rules/sethdford/flowx/error-handling-rules
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/sethdford/flowx

Made for: Cursor.

Per session 0 Nothing until a file matches its globs; then the whole rule loads.
When invoked 2,596 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00000 $0.02596
Opus 5 $0.00000 $0.01298
Sonnet 5 $0.00000 $0.00519
Haiku 4.5 $0.00000 $0.00260

Measured yesterday against content hash 3b885fcecf0c, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

error-handling-rules scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured yesterday.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

.cursor/rules/error-handling-rules.mdc · 385 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 385 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Error Handling Rules: No Console Pollution, Proper Errors

🚨 CONSOLE POLLUTION - NEVER DO THESE (GEMINI CLI HAS 100+)

Forbidden Console Usage

// ❌ FORBIDDEN - Console pollution like Gemini CLI
console.log('debug info');
console.error('Something went wrong');
console.warn('Warning message');
console.info('Info message');
console.debug('Debug info');

// ✅ REQUIRED - Use proper logging
import { logger } from '../utils/logger.js';
logger.debug('debug info');
logger.error('Something went wrong');
logger.warn('Warning message');
logger.info('Info message');

Exception: CLI Entry Points Only

// ✅ ALLOWED - Only in CLI entry points (cli.ts, main.ts)
if (process.argv.includes('--version')) {
  console.log(version);  // Direct user output
  process.exit(0);
}

// ✅ ALLOWED - Only in test files
describe('test suite', () => {
  console.log('Test output');  // Test debugging
});

🛡️ PROPER ERROR HANDLING PATTERNS

1. Use Our UserError System

// ✅ REQUIRED - Structured error handling
import { createUserError, ErrorCategory } from '../errors/index.js';

throw createUserError('Clear error message', {
  category: ErrorCategory.VALIDATION,
  resolution: 'How to fix this issue',
  details: { additionalContext: 'value' }
});

// ❌ WRONG - Generic errors like Gemini CLI
throw new Error('something went wrong');
throw 'string error';  // Even worse

2. Proper Async Error Handling

// ✅ REQUIRED - Comprehensive async error handling
async function performOperation(): Promise<OperationResult> {
  try {
    const result = await riskyOperation();
    return { success: true, data: result };
  } catch (error) {
    // Handle known error types
    if (error instanceof UserError) {
      throw error;  // Re-throw our errors
    }
    
    if (error instanceof TypeError) {
      throw createUserError('Invalid input provided', {
        category: ErrorCategory.VALIDATION,
        resolution: 'Check input parameters',
        details: { originalError: error.message }
      });
    }
    
    // Handle unknown errors
    throw createUserError('Operation failed', {
      category: ErrorCategory.SYSTEM,
      resolution: 'Try again or contact support',
      details: { error: error instanceof Error ? error.message : 'Unknown error' }
    });
  }
}

// ❌ WRONG - Poor error handling like Gemini CLI
async function performOperation() {
  try {
    return await riskyOperation();
  } catch (error) {
    console.error('Error:', error);  // Console pollution
    throw error;  // No context
  }
}

Read the full file on GitHub · 385 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. yesterday First seen · 385 lines · 0 tokens per session scan A 3b885fcecf0c

Subscribe to this mod's changes

error-handling-rules is a cursor rule published in the GitHub repository sethdford/flowx (2 stars, last pushed 1mo ago), licensed MIT. It costs nothing until one of its globs matches a file; then it loads 2,596 tokens. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-31.