Code Hidden Failures

Hidden-Failure Scanner

Detect code that fails without saying so. Two tracks:

The two were previously separate skills (code-error-swallowing + code-silent-degradation); they are the same user intent — "the work reported success but nothing real happened" — so they live in one scanner with a --track selector.

When to Use This Skill

Context

• Scan path: $ARGUMENTS (defaults to current directory)
• Language signals: !find . -maxdepth 2 \( -name '*.sh' -o -name '*.bash' -o -name '*.ts' -o -name '*.tsx' -o -name '*.js' -o -name '*.jsx' -o -name '*.py' -o -name '*.go' -o -name '*.rs' \) -type f -not -path './node_modules/*' -not -path './.git/*'
• App-type signals (frontend): !find . -maxdepth 2 \( -name 'index.html' -o -name 'vite.config.*' -o -name 'next.config.*' \) -type f
• App-type signals (CLI): !find . -maxdepth 2 \( -name 'bin' -type d -o -name 'Makefile' -o -name 'justfile' \)
• App-type signals (service): !find . -maxdepth 2 \( -name 'Dockerfile' -o -name '*.service' -o -name 'pyproject.toml' \) -type f
• Config signals: !find . -maxdepth 2 \( -name '.env*' -o -name 'config.*' -o -name 'settings.*' \) -type f
• Workflows: !find . -path '*/.github/workflows/*' -maxdepth 3 -name '*.yml' -type f

Parameters

Parse from $ARGUMENTS:

• PATH: directory or file to scan (defaults to .)
• --track <errors|degradation|both>: which track to run (default both)
• --lang <shell|js|py|go|rust|auto>: errors track — restrict to one language (default auto)
• --severity <low|med|high>: minimum severity to report (default med)
• --emit-patch: errors track — emit a unified-diff patch on stdout (no in-place mutation; apply with git apply)
• --fix: degradation track — apply recommended fixes in place (precondition checks, status indicators, distinguishing copy)

--emit-patch and --fix are mutually exclusive — the errors track reviews its surfacing copy via a patch, the degradation track applies structural fixes directly.

Execution

Run the selected track(s). Default both: run errors first, then degradation, then a combined summary.

Track A — Error swallowing

Run when --track is errors or both.

Step A1: Detect languages and app context

From the context commands above, determine which language matchers to run. For the app-context matrix (signals → surfacing channel), load REFERENCE-surfacing.md.

Step A2: Run the matchers

The AST-shaped swallowed-error patterns (js/ts, python, go, rust) live as an ast-grep rule project in rules/ (one *.yml per pattern under rules/lib/, each with a valid/invalid fixture in rules/tests/). Run the whole catalog in one deterministic pass — do not re-type sg -p '…' per language:

ast-grep scan -c ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/rules/sgconfig.yml --json=compact <path>

Each finding carries ruleId, file, range (line/column), message, and the matched text — the raw finding set for Steps A3–A6.

The shell / bash track stays grep-based — || true, 2>/dev/null in context, and xtrace suppression are line-shaped, not AST-shaped:

bash ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/scan-shell.sh <path>

Graceful degradation — if ast-grep (packaged as ast-grep or sg) is not installed, fall back to the per-pattern flow: read the REFERENCE-{js,python,go, rust}.md files (each links its patterns to the rule .yml) and run the individual sg -p '<pattern>' --lang <lang> commands by hand. Prefer the repo's own errcheck/staticcheck (Go) or cargo clippy (Rust) when configured — the rule project surfaces what those linters would catch, it does not replace them.

For every finding, capture: file:line, matched snippet, surrounding function name if discoverable.

Step A3: Classify severity

For every raw finding, assign Low / Medium / High:

Apply the per-language allowlist rules from each REFERENCE-*.md before assigning Low.

Step A4: Recommend a surfacing channel

For each Medium/High finding, consult REFERENCE-surfacing.md to pick the channel appropriate to the detected app context — do not recommend a uniform "log and rethrow":

Step A5: Apply privacy redaction

Every suggested replacement (report and --emit-patch) MUST pass through the redaction rules in REFERENCE-surfacing.md §Privacy:

1. Redact env values by name pattern (*TOKEN*, *KEY*, *SECRET*, *PASSWORD*, GH_*, ANTHROPIC_*, AWS_*) → [REDACTED].
2. Rewrite absolute home paths ($HOME, /Users/…, /home/…) → ~.
3. Truncate message payloads at 200 characters.
4. Prefer action-oriented copy over raw stderr forwarding.
5. Never forward set -x / xtrace output.

For web frontend, split: verbose detail → console.error; short sanitized copy → UI channel.

Step A6: Emit patch (if --emit-patch)

Generate a unified diff to stdout (not written to files) that covers only Medium/High findings, applies the app-context-appropriate channel, runs every inserted string through the Step A5 redaction, and adds a # TODO(hidden-failures): review wording comment next to each generated user-facing message. Remind the user: git apply <patchfile>.

Track B — Silent degradation

Run when --track is degradation or both. Detection patterns, severity guide, and fixes live in REFERENCE-degradation.md.

Step B1: Discover source files

Glob **/*.{ts,tsx,js,jsx,py,go,rs} in the target path, excluding node_modules, dist, build, .git, vendor, __pycache__.

Step B2: Scan for the five degradation patterns

Match the five pattern categories from REFERENCE-degradation.md: silent config skip, success on zero results, silent step skipping, missing precondition validation, hidden degraded mode. For each finding capture file:line, which pattern, what the user experiences, and the preconditions the code needs.

Step B3: Classify (degradation severity)

High = success messaging when nothing worked (patterns 2, 3); Medium = functionality silently disabled by config/env (patterns 1, 5); Low = missing upfront validation (pattern 4).

Step B4: Apply fixes (if --fix)

Apply the per-pattern fixes from REFERENCE-degradation.md § Recommended Fixes in place, then list every change with file:line references.

Combined Report

Group by severity descending; omit Low unless --severity low. Tag each row with its track.

Hidden-Failure Scan: <path>  (track: both)
Detected app context: <cli|frontend|backend|library|daemon|ci>

| Track       | Severity | File:Line       | Pattern                     | Recommended action               |
|-------------|----------|-----------------|-----------------------------|----------------------------------|
| errors      | High     | release.sh:42   | `npm publish ... \|\| true` | stderr + exit 1                  |
| degradation | High     | scan.ts:88      | success on zero results     | distinguish "none" vs "skipped"  |
| errors      | Medium   | api/fetch.ts:17 | empty catch                 | console.error + toast (sanitized)|

Totals: errors(high=N med=N low=N)  degradation(high=N med=N low=N)  across M files

Agentic Optimizations

See Also

• rules/ — the executable ast-grep catalog for the errors track (sgconfig.yml + rules/lib/*.yml + rules/tests/*-test.yml); run ast-grep test -c rules/sgconfig.yml --skip-snapshot-tests to verify every rule against its fixtures
• /code:antipatterns — delegates here for the error-swallowing category
• /code:review — prose code review
• .claude/rules/shell-scripting.md — canonical allowlist for shell \|\| true / 2>/dev/null
• REFERENCE-surfacing.md — app-context → channel matrix and privacy rules (errors track)
• REFERENCE-degradation.md — the five degradation patterns, severities, and fixes (degradation track)
• /configure:sentry, /configure:feature-flags — surfacing/monitoring infrastructure