Files
AgentCompany/builtin-skills/software-engineer/clean-code/references/err-write-try-catch-first.md
T
ZacharyZhang-NY e74dafcd36 Silence render-disposed spam, unbreak bundled skills, drop board wake
Three independently ugly bugs that all fed the same log flood:

* Electron's `WebFrameMain.send` writes every "Render frame was disposed"
  to stderr via `console.error`. When the worker fans a second
  agent-event past a reloading renderer, we produced thousands of
  identical lines and stalled the main loop on stderr I/O. Added a
  `mainFrame.detached` guard so the send is short-circuited before
  Electron's own catch block fires, and installed a targeted filter in
  `suppress-warnings.ts` (now actually imported from the entry point)
  so the specific `console.error("Error sending from webFrameMain:"…)`
  noise never reaches the terminal. Any other payload still surfaces.

* `dispatchAgentMessage` accepted the human-reader sentinel as a wake
  target when an agent replied to `__board__` — `wakeAgentIfPossible`
  then called `db.getAgent("__board__")`, threw, and the dispatcher
  kept repeating on every send. Strip `HUMAN_SENDER_ID` at
  `resolveMessageWakeTargets`, and keep a defense-in-depth guard in the
  heartbeat so a stray caller (future automation fan-out) cannot
  reintroduce the crash.

* Pi's skills loader rejects any SKILL.md whose frontmatter `name`
  diverges from its parent directory. The four bundled `my-writing-style`
  copies declared `name: writing-style-skill`, so every install emitted
  a warning and dropped the skill. They also lived as orphan gitlinks
  (mode 160000 without .gitmodules), and the global `*.md` gitignore
  hid every other SKILL.md from version control. Fixed the frontmatter
  to match the dir, converted the dangling submodules to plain trees,
  and allowlisted `builtin-skills/**/*.md` so a fresh clone carries the
  catalogue instead of silently losing it.
2026-04-20 08:13:48 -04:00

1.8 KiB

title, impact, impactDescription, tags
title impact impactDescription tags
Write Try-Catch-Finally First HIGH prevents missing error handling cases err, try-catch, tdd, boundaries

Write Try-Catch-Finally First

When writing code that could throw exceptions, start with the try-catch-finally statement. This helps define what the user of the code should expect, regardless of what goes wrong in the try block.

Incorrect (error handling added as afterthought):

// Written without considering error cases
public List<RecordedGrip> retrieveSection(String sectionName) {
    FileInputStream stream = new FileInputStream(sectionName);
    BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(stream));
    String line;
    List<RecordedGrip> grips = new ArrayList<>();
    while ((line = reader.readLine()) != null) {
        grips.add(parseGrip(line));
    }
    return grips;
    // What if file doesn't exist? What if parsing fails?
}

Correct (start with try-catch structure):

// TDD approach: start with test for exception case
@Test(expected = StorageException.class)
public void retrieveSectionShouldThrowOnInvalidFileName() {
    sectionStore.retrieveSection("invalid-file");
}

// Then write code starting with try-catch
public List<RecordedGrip> retrieveSection(String sectionName) throws StorageException {
    try (var stream = new FileInputStream(sectionName)) {
        return readGrips(stream);
    } catch (IOException e) {
        throw new StorageException("Error reading section: " + sectionName, e);
    }
}

Benefits:

  • Forces you to consider error cases first
  • Establishes clear transaction boundaries
  • The finally block ensures cleanup happens

Reference: Clean Code, Chapter 7: Error Handling