Most developers treat error handling as an afterthought. Write the happy path, wrap it in try/catch, console.error the exception, and move on. The result is error handling that's inconsistent, incomplete, and gives users cryptic messages when things go wrong.

But error handling isn't a local concern — it's an architectural decision. How your application responds to failures determines whether users see a helpful message and continue their work, or stare at a blank white screen wondering if their data was saved.

Treating error handling as architecture means designing it once, applying it consistently, and making failures a first-class concern in your system design.

Error Classification

Not all errors are the same. Classifying errors helps you handle each type appropriately: