no-empty-catch-in-express-handlers

Install

Works with Claude Code, Claude apps, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot, VS Code, OpenCode, Goose, Windsurf. Read the repository before you give any tool access to your data.

npx agentmarket install skill/stopthatslop-no-empty-catch-in-express-handlers

About

Use cases: frontend, backend, writing

No reviews yet. Installed it? Reviews come from verified installers only. How reviews work

Permissions

What this skill can do and what it asks for, from its SKILL.md and code. Checked Nov 1, 2026.

Tools

No tools found

Secrets

None asked for

Install scripts

None found

What's inside

Skill name

no-empty-catch-in-express-handlers

Description

Do not swallow errors in Express handlers with empty catch blocks. Catch, log, and pass the error to next() or return a 500. Use only when editing Express/Koa route handlers and middleware. Do not use for React event handlers, Python except blocks, or validation errors intentionally mapped to 4xx responses.

License

MIT

Metadata

pack: stopthatslop-ts-node-v1 · globs: **/*.ts · engine_rule_id: typescript.express.no-empty-catch-in-route-handler

Instructions

48 lines in SKILL.md · view on GitHub

# No empty catch in Express handlers

An empty catch turns every downstream failure into a request that hangs until
the client gives up, because Express never learns the handler failed. Agents
add `catch {}` to silence "unhandled promise" warnings instead of fixing the
flow.

## Do

```typescript
router.get("/orders/:id", async (req, res, next) => {
  try {
    const order = await orders.find(req.params.id);
    if (!order) {
      res.status(404).json({ error: "not found" });
      return;
    }
    res.json(order);
  } catch (err) {
    next(err);
  }
});
```

## Do not

```typescript
router.get("/orders/:id", async (req, res) => {
  try {
    const order = await orders.find(req.params.id);
    res.json(order);
  } catch {}
});
```

If the project targets Express 5 or uses `express-async-errors`, plain
`async` handlers without try/catch are fine — the point is that errors reach
the error middleware, never a silent `{}`.

## Enforce

CI gates this rule (`enforcement: checker`):

```bash
python3 scripts/check.py --repo-root . --pack ts --rule typescript.express.no-empty-catch-in-route-handler
```

Signals

Stars

4

Forks

0

Open issues

0

Last commit (this folder)

Sep 1, 2026 (2 months ago)

Last release

Sep 13, 2026 (1 month ago)

From GitHub (fetched Oct 24, 2026).

Details

License

MIT

Repository

github.com/StopThatSlop/stopthatslop

Website

stopthatslop.com

First seen

Oct 24, 2026

Last checked

Oct 24, 2026

Source

GitHubgithub-graphql