Error Handling Patterns — Expert Decisions

Expert decision frameworks for error handling choices. Claude knows Swift error syntax — this skill provides judgment calls for error type design and recovery strategies.

Decision Trees

throws vs Result

Does the caller need to handle success/failure explicitly?
├─ YES (caller must acknowledge failure)
│  └─ Is the failure common and expected?
│     ├─ YES → Result<T, E> (explicit handling, no try/catch)
│     └─ NO → throws (exceptional case)
│
└─ NO (caller can ignore failure)
   └─ Use throws with try? at call site