no-silent-errors

Report a catch block that does nothing. An empty handler swallows the error: nothing is logged, nothing is rethrown, and the failure vanishes.

This rule is part of eslint-plugin-reliability.

Quick SummaryCopy Anchor Link

Rule DetailsCopy Anchor Link

The rule reports a catch clause whose body holds no statement: an empty block, or one holding only empty statements (;). Every spelling of the clause counts: with a binding (catch (err) {}), without one (catch {}), followed by finally, inside an async function.

A catch block that does anything handles the error and is not reported: it logs it, rethrows it, returns a fallback value, or records a flag for the caller.

ConfigurationCopy Anchor Link

With allowWithComment, a comment counts as an explanation when it uses one of these words: intentional, expected, ignore, silent, noop / no-op, by design, known issue, legacy, third-party, framework, library, not implemented, TODO, FIXME. A comment far above the try, about something else, explains nothing.

ExamplesCopy Anchor Link

❌ IncorrectCopy Anchor Link

try {
  data = readCache();
} catch (err) {}

try {
  await flush();
} catch {
  ;
}

✅ CorrectCopy Anchor Link

try {
  data = readCache();
} catch (err) {
  console.error('cache read failed', err);
}

try {
  data = readCache();
} catch {
  return null; // a cold cache is a valid state
}

// With { allowWithComment: true }
try {
  data = readCache();
} catch {
  // intentional: a missing cache file means a cold start
}

Configuration ExamplesCopy Anchor Link

// eslint.config.mjs
export default [
  {
    rules: {
      'reliability/no-silent-errors': ['error', { allowWithComment: true }],
    },
  },
];

Related RulesCopy Anchor Link

• no-missing-error-context - Thrown errors must carry a message
• no-unhandled-promise - Promise rejections must be handled

Known False NegativesCopy Anchor Link

The following patterns are not detected:

Promise .catch with an empty handlerCopy Anchor Link

Why: the rule inspects catch clauses; .catch(() => {}) is a function argument, not a clause.

// ❌ NOT DETECTED
save().catch(() => {});

Mitigation: give the handler a body that logs or rethrows.

Use this rule

npm install -D oxlint-plugin-reliability

{  "jsPlugins": ["oxlint-plugin-reliability"],  "rules": {    "reliability/no-silent-errors": "error"  }}

import { defineConfig } from 'vite-plus';export default defineConfig({  lint: {    jsPlugins: ['oxlint-plugin-reliability'],    rules: {      'reliability/no-silent-errors': 'error',    },  },});