Babysitter Error Messages

Expert skill for designing and implementing high-quality compiler error messages

install

source · Clone the upstream repo

git clone https://github.com/a5c-ai/babysitter

Claude Code · Install into ~/.claude/skills/

T=$(mktemp -d) && git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/a5c-ai/babysitter "$T" && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r "$T/library/specializations/programming-languages/skills/error-messages" ~/.claude/skills/a5c-ai-babysitter-error-messages && rm -rf "$T"

manifest: library/specializations/programming-languages/skills/error-messages/SKILL.md

Error Messages Skill

Overview

Expert skill for designing and implementing high-quality compiler error messages.

Capabilities

Design clear, actionable error message templates
Implement source context display with underlines
Generate fix suggestions and quick fixes
Handle error cascades and suppression
Implement multi-span error annotations
Support machine-readable error output (JSON)
Implement color/styled terminal output
Design error recovery strategies for better diagnostics

Target Processes

error-message-enhancement.js
parser-development.js
type-system-implementation.js
semantic-analysis.js
lsp-server-implementation.js

Dependencies

Elm/Rust error message guidelines

Usage Guidelines

Clarity: Make error messages clear and actionable
Context: Show relevant source code context with precise location
Suggestions: Provide fix suggestions when possible
Cascades: Suppress cascading errors to avoid overwhelming users
Machine-Readable: Support JSON output for tooling integration

Output Schema

{
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "errorFormat": {
      "type": "string",
      "enum": ["human", "json", "sarif"]
    },
    "features": {
      "type": "array",
      "items": { "type": "string" }
    },
    "colorSupport": { "type": "boolean" },
    "generatedFiles": {
      "type": "array",
      "items": { "type": "string" }
    }
  }
}