Error Recovery

Overview

Handle failures gracefully with structured recovery.

Core principle: When things break, don't panic. Assess, preserve, recover, verify.

Announce at start: "I'm using error-recovery to handle this failure."

The Recovery Protocol

Error Detected
      │
      ▼
┌─────────────┐
│ 1. ASSESS   │ ← Severity? Scope? Impact?
└──────┬──────┘
       │
       ▼
┌─────────────┐
│ 2. PRESERVE │ ← Capture evidence before it's lost
└──────┬──────┘
       │
       ▼
┌─────────────┐
│ 3. RECOVER  │ ← Follow decision tree
└──────┬──────┘
       │
       ▼
┌─────────────┐
│ 4. VERIFY   │ ← Confirm clean state
└──────┬──────┘
       │
       ▼
┌─────────────┐
│ 5. DOCUMENT │ ← Record what happened
└─────────────┘

Step 1: Assess Severity

Severity Levels

Assessment Questions

## Error Assessment

**Error:** [Description of error]
**Location:** [Where it occurred]

### Severity Checklist
- [ ] Is the system still functional?
- [ ] Is any data at risk?
- [ ] Are other features affected?
- [ ] Is this blocking progress?

### Scope
- Files affected: [list]
- Features affected: [list]
- Users affected: [none/some/all]

Step 2: Preserve Evidence

Capture BEFORE attempting fixes:

Error Logs

# Capture error output
pnpm test 2>&1 | tee error-log.txt

# Or from failed command
./failing-command 2>&1 | tee error-log.txt

Stack Traces

## Stack Trace

Error: Connection refused at Database.connect (src/db/connection.ts:45) at UserService.init (src/services/user.ts:23) at main (src/index.ts:12)

State Capture

# Git state
git status
git diff

# Environment state
env | grep -E "NODE|NPM|PATH"

# Dependency state
pnpm list

Screenshot (if visual)

For UI errors, capture screenshots before changes.

Step 3: Recover

Decision Tree

What type of failure?
         │
    ┌────┴────┬────────────┬────────────┐
    │         │            │            │
  Code      Build      Environment   External
  Error     Error        Issue       Service
    │         │            │            │
    ▼         ▼            ▼            ▼
  ┌────┐   ┌────┐      ┌────┐      ┌────┐
  │Git │   │Clean│     │Re-  │     │Wait/│
  │reco│   │build│     │init │     │Retry│
  │very│   │     │     │     │     │     │
  └────┘   └────┘      └────┘      └────┘

Code Error Recovery

Single file broken:

# Revert just that file
git checkout HEAD -- path/to/file.ts

Feature broken (multiple files):

# Find last good commit
git log --oneline

# Revert to that commit (soft reset keeps changes staged)
git reset --soft [GOOD_COMMIT]

# Or hard reset (discards changes)
git reset --hard [GOOD_COMMIT]

Working directory is a mess:

# Stash current changes
git stash

# Verify clean state
git status

# Optionally recover stash later
git stash pop

Build Error Recovery

# Clean build artifacts
rm -rf node_modules dist build .cache

# Reinstall dependencies
pnpm install --frozen-lockfile  # Clean install from lock file

# Rebuild
pnpm build

Environment Error Recovery

# Check environment
env | grep -E "NODE|PNPM"

# Reset Node modules
rm -rf node_modules
pnpm install --frozen-lockfile

# If using nvm, verify version
nvm use

# Re-run init script
./scripts/init.sh

External Service Error

# Check if service is up
curl -I https://service.example.com/health

# If down, wait and retry
sleep 60
curl -I https://service.example.com/health

# If still down, check status page
# Document as external blocker

Step 4: Verify

After recovery, verify clean state:

Basic Verification

# Clean working directory
git status
# Expected: "nothing to commit, working tree clean" or known changes

# Tests pass
pnpm test

# Build succeeds
pnpm build

# Types check
pnpm typecheck

Functionality Verification

# Run the specific thing that was broken
pnpm test --grep "specific test"

# Or verify the feature manually

Step 5: Document

Issue Comment

gh issue comment [ISSUE_NUMBER] --body "## Error Recovery

**Error encountered:** [Description]

**Severity:** Major

**Evidence:**
\`\`\`
[Error output]
\`\`\`

**Recovery actions:**
1. [Action 1]
2. [Action 2]

**Verification:**
- [x] Tests pass
- [x] Build succeeds

**Root cause:** [If known]

**Prevention:** [If applicable]
"

Knowledge Graph

// Store for future reference
mcp__memory__add_observations({
  observations: [{
    entityName: "Issue #[NUMBER]",
    contents: [
      "Encountered [error type] on [date]",
      "Caused by: [root cause]",
      "Resolved by: [recovery action]"
    ]
  }]
});

Common Recovery Patterns

"Tests were passing, now failing"

# What changed?
git diff HEAD~3

# Did dependencies change?
git diff HEAD~3 pnpm-lock.yaml

# Clean reinstall
rm -rf node_modules && pnpm install --frozen-lockfile

"Works locally, fails in CI"

# Check for environment differences
# - Node version
# - OS differences
# - Env vars

# Run with CI-like settings
CI=true pnpm test

"Build was working, now broken"

# Check TypeScript errors
pnpm typecheck

# Check for circular dependencies
pnpm dlx madge --circular src/

# Clean build
rm -rf dist && pnpm build

"I broke everything"

# Don't panic
# Find last known good state
git log --oneline

# Reset to that state
git reset --hard [GOOD_COMMIT]

# Verify
pnpm test

# Start again more carefully

Escalation

If recovery fails after 2-3 attempts:

## Escalation: Unrecoverable Error

**Issue:** #[NUMBER]

**Error:** [Description]

**Recovery attempts:**
1. [Attempt 1] - [Result]
2. [Attempt 2] - [Result]

**Current state:** [Broken/Partially working]

**Evidence preserved:** [Links to logs, screenshots]

**Requesting help with:** [Specific question]

Mark issue as Blocked and await human input.

Checklist

When error occurs:

• Severity assessed
• Evidence preserved (logs, state, screenshots)
• Recovery action selected
• Recovery executed
• Clean state verified
• Tests pass
• Build succeeds
• Issue documented

Integration

This skill is called by:

• issue-driven-development - When errors occur
• ci-monitoring - CI failures

This skill may trigger:

• research-after-failure - If cause is unknown
• Issue update via issue-lifecycle