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 Silently fail or return empty results Check availability on every call (cache it) Assume the user knows how to start missing services Example: LMStudio Check Pattern Fallback Message Template Source Sessions This session: LMStudio availability check with 60s caching and helpful fallback 174e0ff3: Environment variable debugging print computed paths for troubleshooting

graceful-degradation