Iron Law: An empty catch block is not error handling — it is a lie to the operator. Every catch must log AND rethrow or return an error state.

Silent Failure Hunter

Enforces the "No Silent Failures" rule from code-standards.md — every catch block must log the error AND either rethrow or return an explicit error state. Finds swallowed exceptions, fallbacks that hide failures, and mock data returned on error.

When to Use

• After implementing features with API calls or database operations
• Reviewing any code that has try/catch blocks
• Before merging code that touches external service integrations
• Proactively after implementing I/O-heavy features

Forbidden Patterns (all languages)