Monal Gupta
Blogs

2016 · 2 min read

Addressable errors

Every error message your software emits should have a URL. Here is why that small discipline pays off.

An error message is a piece of documentation delivered at the worst possible moment. The least we can do is make it linkable.

When each error has a stable code and a URL, the message stays short, the explanation can grow over time, and support conversations collapse from a thread into a link.

It also creates a feedback loop: pages with heavy traffic tell you exactly which failure modes your users hit most, which is usually a better roadmap signal than any survey.