Graceful Degradation with Helpful Messages

When optional services are unavailable, degrade gracefully with actionable fallback messages.

Pattern

Check availability at the start, cache the result, and provide helpful messages that explain what's missing and how to fix it.

DO

• Check service availability early (before wasting compute)
• Cache health check results for the session (e.g., 60s TTL)
• Provide actionable fallback messages:
  • What service is missing
  • What features are degraded
  • How to enable the service
• Continue with reduced functionality when possible

DON'T