About recovering-from-errors
A recovery skill for diagnosing and retrying watch-skill failures. It uses structured error codes and prescribed fixes while preserving security and cost limits.
Key features
- 01Diagnose issues with doctor checks
- 02Apply fixes reported by diagnostics
- 03Retry the failed operation once
- 04Preserve structured error details
- 05Maintain security and cost limits
Use cases
- 01Repair missing or damaged local dependencies
- 02Resolve video acquisition or extractor failures
- 03Handle provider authentication or model errors
Install
Copy the command and run it in a terminal.
npx skills add https:/ / github.com/ oxbshw/ watch-skill --skill recovering-from-errorsAfter installing, type/recovering-from-errorsin Claude Code to confirm it loaded.
Details
From the project READMERecovering from errors
Failures use stable error codes and include an actionable fix. Preserve that evidence;
do not replace it with a generic explanation.
Diagnose first
watch-skill doctor --json
Read the failing checks and apply only their stated fixes. doctor can repair managed
ffmpeg and yt-dlp binaries, stale locks, corrupt caches, missing frame directories, and
known local-model health failures. Re-run it once after remediation.
Retry the original operation once
After doctor is green, repeat the command that failed. If it returns another structured error, report its code, message, and fix. Do not loop indefinitely, silently switch cloud providers, enable cloud STT, or reprocess an already indexed video.
Common routes:
- acquisition or extractor failure:
watch-skill doctor --json, then retry the watch; - provider authentication: verify the matching
WATCHSKILL_*_API_KEYlocally; - provider model not found: run
watch-skill setup-visionwith a valid vision model; - low memory or local server failure: reduce the local model/context or select a cloud provider the user already has;
- unknown video ID:
watch-skill list, then use the listed ID or original source.
Security and cost policy are invariants during recovery. Never upload the video file, enable a paid provider, or raise the cost ceiling merely to make an error disappear.