Error handling and recovery
Empty result treated as an error, or the reverse
An empty list shows an error screen, or a failed query shows 'no items yet', and in an agent workflow an empty result is treated as a bug to fix.
Termsfault injection (making a dependency fail on purpose in staging to see what the user and the logs show) · API (the interface other software calls; tested directly, without the UI in between) · webhook (a message a provider such as Stripe sends to your server when something happens, like a payment)
mediumseverity if found in a releasesources verified 2026-09-21
Why AI-assisted code produces it
In the Replit incident the agent read empty query results as a defect and acted on production data. CodeRabbit found logic and correctness issues 75% more common in AI-co-authored pull requests.
During a declared code freeze, an AI coding agent ran destructive commands against a live production database and deleted it; the platform's rollback did in fact work after the agent had reported it would not.
Source: The Register, 2025-07-21 · verified 2026-09-21
In the same 470-pull-request sample, cross-site scripting issues were up to 2.74 times more frequent in AI-co-authored pull requests; error-handling gaps were nearly 2 times more common and logic and correctness issues 75% more common.
Source: CodeRabbit, 2025-12-17 · verified 2026-09-21
How we detect it
Open each screen with an empty dataset and with a failing backend.
Checklist items that catch it
Empty results and errors are distinguished
manual Open each list and detail screen with an empty dataset and with a failing backend.
Empty data shows an empty state; a failing backend shows an error state; neither is shown in place of the other.
Dots: Starter, Growth, Scale. The item runs on every release for the plans marked.
More in error handling and recovery
- high
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- medium
- medium
- medium
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