Fail-open design - Era SDK

The Node SDK returns an empty string for expected Era service failures. Your application can make its model call without Era context.

const eraContext = await era.turnContext(messages, {
  visitorId,
  sessionId,
});

// An empty string is safe to add to the prompt.
const systemPrompt = `You are a helpful assistant.\n\n${eraContext}`;

Behavior by condition

Error type	Behavior
Network error or timeout	Retry, then return `""` and warn
HTTP 5xx	Retry, then return `""` and warn
HTTP 4xx	Return `""` and warn; do not retry
Invalid response	Retry, then return `""` and warn
No `visitorId`	Return `""` without a request
Conversation does not end with a user message	Return `""` without a request

Retry behavior

The default is one retry. Set maxRetries to change it:

const era = new Era({
  maxRetries: 2,
  timeoutMs: 3000,
});

Only transient failures are retried. A 4xx response usually means the API key, partner ID, or request is wrong, so retrying the same request will not help.

Logging

Warnings use console.warn by default. Pass your own logger if needed:

const era = new Era({
  logger: {
    warn: (message) => appLogger.warn(message),
    info: (message) => appLogger.info(message),
  },
});

Set debug: true to enable informational logs when you use the default logger. Fail-open behavior does not hide errors in your own code. For example, the Era constructor still throws when mode is not "async" or "sync".