Error Recovery: AI Skill for UX Design
Error Recovery is an AI skill that designs how a product prevents, surfaces, and recovers from errors. It leads with prevention, writes messages that guide instead of blame, and never leaves a dead end.
npx skills add Uxcel-Lab/product-skills --skill ux-error-recovery
What this skill does
Helps an AI assistant prevent errors where possible and make the unavoidable ones recoverable, clear, and humane.
- Prevents errors first with constrained inputs, forgiving formats, and input masks.
- Validates after loss of focus, not keystroke-by-keystroke or only on submit.
- Structures every message: what happened, why it matters, what to do next.
- Keeps the error state visible until the value actually passes.
- Adds undo for reversible actions and confirmation only for destructive ones.
- Preserves the user's work when a system or AI step fails.
- Turns 404 pages into recovery surfaces with search and helpful links.
- Matches friction and tone to the real-world stakes of the error.
When to use it
Use it when you need an AI assistant to:
- design or review error states and messages;
- fix form validation timing;
- create a 404 or error page;
- choose between confirmation dialogs and undo;
- handle system, network, or AI failures gracefully;
- write recovery copy that guides instead of blames.
Decisions this skill helps you make
| Decision | Options |
|---|---|
| Confirm vs. undo | Undo for reversible actions, confirmation for high-consequence ones |
| Validation timing | On blur as the rule, real-time for password-style inputs |
| Humor in copy | On-brand playfulness for low-stakes errors, serious tone for finance, health, and security |
| Confidence display | Categorical labels like High/Med/Low, N-best lists, or raw percentages |
| Degradation | Step-by-step fallback with manual takeover, or a full stop |
| Transparency vs. security | Guiding explanations, or deliberately plain failures that give exploiters nothing |
| Error feedback | A lightweight ask after resolution, or none at all |
| 404 richness | Concise copy plus search, or on-brand visuals and interactivity |
How the skill works
1
Establish the stakes
The skill checks the stakes, the error source, and where in the flow the error happens.
2
Prevent, then recover
It constrains inputs, validates on blur, writes recovery messages, and adds a safety net.
3
Surface trade-offs
It presents choices like confirm vs. undo and validation timing with trade-offs and a recommendation.
Try it with
Related skills
1.0.0
MIT
UX Design
Flows
