AI-coding hygiene

no-empty-catch

Forbid empty `catch` blocks (`catch {}`, `catch (e) {}`, `catch (e) { /* TODO */ }`).

AI coding tools use this shape to silence the type checker without addressing the underlying error — the runtime failure then ships invisibly. Distinguishes "truly empty" from "contains only comments" so the report points at the exact AI pattern.

Behavior

• Fixable: No.
• Suggestions: No.

Examples

Bad:

try { doThing(); } catch (e) { /* TODO */ }

Good:

try { doThing(); } catch (e) { logger.error({ err: e }, 'doThing failed'); throw e; }

Related rules

• no-leaked-stack-traceForbid HTTP responses that include a stack trace or the raw caught-exception object.
• no-floating-promise-handlerRequire try/catch (or an async wrapper) on async Express/Fastify route handlers.
• no-prod-consoleForbid `console.log`/`debug`/`info`/`dir`/`trace`/`table`/`time*` in production source.

Use it

Enable no-empty-catch in your eslint.config.js:

import deslint from '@deslint/eslint-plugin';

export default [
  {
    plugins: { deslint },
    rules: {
      'deslint/no-empty-catch': 'error',
    },
  },
];

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