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Errors & Refusals
Silent Failure
The system fails to perform an action but gives no visual indication of the error.
3 principles3 checklist items2 simulation modes
What you will learn
Visible System Status
Explicit Error Messaging
Path to Recovery
Run the simulation to see the failure in action.
Interactive Lab
Toggle between Bad and Good modes.
Anti-pattern mode
Simulation Status: Idlev2.4.0
Why it fails
A user submits a request, and nothing happens. The input might clear, or the button resets, but no error message appears. The user assumes it worked or is confused. Critical in AI agents where 'doing work' is invisible.
Root cause
Poor error handling in the frontend. Swallowing exceptions from the underlying API. Assuming a '200 OK' response body always contains success data.
How to fix it
Visible System Status
Explicit Error Messaging
Path to Recovery
Implementation checklist
- Always display error toasts or inline alerts for failed requests
- Preserve user input on failure
- Log client-side errors for debugging