Node.js Error Handling Patterns

Proper error handling prevents crashes and improves debugging. Here's how to handle errors effectively.

Best Practices#

Error Design:
✓ Use custom error classes
✓ Include error codes
✓ Preserve error chain with cause
✓ Distinguish operational vs programming errors

Handling:
✓ Catch at appropriate boundaries
✓ Don't swallow errors silently
✓ Log with context
✓ Fail fast for programming errors

Recovery:
✓ Implement retries for transient failures
✓ Use circuit breakers
✓ Degrade gracefully
✓ Have fallback strategies

Monitoring:
✓ Log structured errors
✓ Track error rates
✓ Alert on anomalies
✓ Include request context

Effective error handling requires custom error classes, proper async handling, and comprehensive logging. Use global handlers for uncaught errors, implement retry and circuit breaker patterns for resilience, and always log with sufficient context for debugging.

Node.js Error Handling Patterns

Error Types#

Custom Error Classes#

Synchronous Error Handling#

Async Error Handling#

Express Error Handling#

Global Error Handlers#

Error Logging#

Error Recovery#

Validation Errors#

Best Practices#

Conclusion#

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