Naming Errors So Teams Actually Agree
Why vague buckets like “checkout broken” stall triage—and how to write names that survive a release.
Error names are shared language. If engineering says “null cart id” and support says “payment failed,” the same pattern splits into two conversations and neither owns the fix.
A durable name states the user-visible effect, the technical fingerprint, and the scope. Example: “Checkout submit fails when cart id missing after guest merge.” Long, but people stop arguing about what they are looking at.
Retire names that no longer match live traces. Archives beat a board crowded with ghosts from last year’s architecture.