Async safety: no failure may be silent

Async bugs are silence. A dropped Future swallows its error; a dead BuildContext throws into a void; a leaked subscription fires into a disposed widget. An app with no telemetry has exactly two feedback loops — the analyzer and the test suite — and the analyzer has one hole big enough to drive the product through. Close it structurally, not with discipline. This skill applies whenever you write async/await, wire a callback, or hold a subscription, timer, or sink.

Non-negotiable rules

1. A callback must never touch a Future. Every onTap/onPressed/onSubmitted/VoidCallback handler returns void. onTap: () => vm.save(x) where save is async is caught by NO lint (see below) — the fix is shape, not vigilance.
2. A mounted / ref.mounted guard goes after EVERY await, immediately before the next BuildContext use — never once at the top, never before the await where it proves nothing. Or capture the object you need before the gap.
3. Multiple awaits ⇒ the guard sits after the LAST one. A guard only certifies the interval since the most recent suspension point.
4. unawaited(x) is legal only if x provably cannot fail silently — it ends in a .catchError(...) or is total. Bare unawaited(f) routes errors to PlatformDispatcher.onError, detached from the UI. That is silence with a permission slip.
5. Every StreamSubscription, StreamController, Timer, and sink is released in dispose() / ref.onDispose. Prefer not owning it: a provider gives teardown for free.
6. Every timer/stream callback that calls setState guards mounted first. A Timer holds a strong reference to its closure and fires happily after the widget is gone.
7. No empty catch, no bare catch, no swallow. Every catch has an on clause (except the crash logger's own write), logs with its stack, and surfaces the failure. Use rethrow, never throw e — the latter resets the stack trace.
8. Never assert a platform/plugin return value. Asserts are stripped in release: green in every test, absent on the device — the perfect silent-failure bug.
9. Nothing unbounded runs before runApp. No migration, no plugin warm-up. Show a usable first frame, then warm up in addPostFrameCallback, unawaited.
10. No runZonedGuarded. Two error handlers suffice — app-startup-and-bootstrap owns installing them, their pre-runApp ordering, the PlatformDispatcher.onError return true rule, and never letting a handler throw. Don't restate that machinery here.

The hole no lint catches

Verified with discarded_futures, unawaited_futures, and unused_result all at error:

The arrow closure returns the Future, so every rule considers it used; the target type is VoidCallback, so Dart's void-compatibility discards it. The Future and its error both hit the floor. This is the most idiomatic way to wire a Flutter tap, and it is precisely where silence hides.

The mitigation is structural, never disciplinary: give the handler method a void return and do the unawaited(... .catchError(...)) inside it. A callback then never holds a Future, so the hole is unreachable by construction.

// A void-returning seam. Do NOT "improve" this to Future<void> — that
// reopens the arrow-callback hole. Keep this comment; without it the next
// reader tidies the void away.
void saveNote(Note note) {
  unawaited(
    _persist(note).catchError((Object e, StackTrace s) {
      _log.record('save path threw: $e', s);
      _showError('That note was not saved.');
    }),
  );
}

Future<void> _persist(Note note) async {
  final result = await _repo.save(note); // returns a typed Result, does not throw
  switch (result) {
    case Ok():
      return;
    case Err(:final failure):
      _log.record('save failed: ${failure.code}', StackTrace.current);
      _showError('That note was not saved.');
  }
}

The async gap and BuildContext

context is a live handle into the element tree, not a value. await yields to the event loop; while suspended the route may pop, the dialog may close, the State may be disposed. On resume the handle points at a corpse. use_build_context_synchronously is why — promote it to error.

// WRONG — the Element may be defunct after the gap.
Future<void> _save() async {
  await _repo.save(note);
  Navigator.of(context).pop();
}

Two legitimate fixes; prefer whichever makes intent obvious.

// RIGHT — capture before the gap. The captured object does not need the tree.
Future<void> _save() async {
  final navigator = Navigator.of(context);
  await _repo.save(note);
  navigator.pop();
}

// RIGHT — guard after the gap, immediately before the context use.
Future<void> _save() async {
  await _repo.save(note);
  if (!mounted) return;
  Navigator.of(context).pop();
}

Two awaits mean the guard sits after the second — the second await reopens the hole the first guard closed:

// WRONG
await _repo.save(note);
if (!mounted) return;
await _repo.reindex();
Navigator.of(context).pop(); // unguarded

// RIGHT
await _repo.save(note);
await _repo.reindex();
if (!mounted) return;
Navigator.of(context).pop();

Which guard, where

The last two rows are the ones people get wrong. A bare helper has no lifecycle to interrogate, so restructure: hand it a captured object or a callback so it never holds a context across a gap. Never write if (!mounted) return; before the await and call it done — that checks the one moment never in doubt.

unawaited, initState, and the first frame

initState is synchronous and cannot be async. Kick the future off through a named method, then guard the landing:

@override
void initState() {
  super.initState();
  // honest: the load path ends in catchError; _load guards mounted before setState.
  unawaited(_load().catchError((Object e, StackTrace s) {
    _log.record('load failed: $e', s);
    if (mounted) _showError('Could not load notes.');
  }));
}

Future<void> _load() async {
  final notes = await _repo.loadNotes(); // may throw — the catchError above owns it
  if (!mounted) return; // a disposed widget's setState throws into nothing
  setState(() => _notes = notes);
}

Prefer to skip the hand-held subscription entirely: expose the stream as a provider and ref.watch it, so teardown is automatic and there is no field to leak.

Never block the first frame on unbounded work. A 12-row read is sub-10ms and safe to await before runApp; a schema migration or a plugin warm-up is not — it sits between the user and a usable UI. Show the shell first, then:

WidgetsBinding.instance.addPostFrameCallback((_) {
  unawaited(_service.warmUp().catchError((Object e, StackTrace s) {
    _log.record('warm-up failed: $e', s); // best-effort; never blocks the frame
  }));
});

Subscriptions, controllers, timers

Every long-lived resource is released. cancel_subscriptions and close_sinks at error.

class _FeedState extends State<Feed> {
  StreamSubscription<List<Item>>? _sub;
  Timer? _debounce;

  @override
  void initState() {
    super.initState();
    _sub = _repo.watchItems().listen(_onItems);
  }

  void _onItems(List<Item> items) {
    if (!mounted) return; // a stream event can outlive dispose()
    setState(() => _items = items);
  }

  @override
  void dispose() {
    unawaited(_sub?.cancel()); // nothing to await, but mark the intentional drop
    _debounce?.cancel();       // Timer.cancel() returns void — no Future to mark
    super.dispose();
  }
}

close_sinks only fires when the rule is enabled under linter: rules: — the analyzer: errors: block merely re-ranks diagnostics that already exist, it cannot switch a lint on. If a never-closed controller produces no diagnostic, that rule was deleted; restore it rather than trusting a green run. For a provider-held service that owns a stream or controller, release it in ref.onDispose.

Timer and Future.delayed share the same rule: cancel the field in dispose(), and guard mounted in the callback. Re-arming a timer means cancel-then-restart, never "return if already running" — swallowing the event manufactures the silence this skill forbids.

Catches

try { await _repo.save(item); } catch (_) {}                    // WRONG — unrecoverable, unknowable
try { await _repo.save(item); } catch (e) { _log.record('$e', null); } // WRONG — swallows Errors (our bugs)
try { await _repo.save(item); } on DbException { /* oh well */ } // WRONG — logged nowhere, continues as success

// RIGHT — typed, logged with its trace, surfaced to the user.
try {
  await _repo.save(item);
} on DbException catch (e, s) {
  _log.record('save failed: $e', s);
  _showError('That item was not saved.');
}

Catch at the few call sites that read or write the boundary, not in a blanket handler. Never catch an Error subclass — that means a bug in your own code; let it crash. The one licensed silent catch is the crash logger's own write (it runs inside the error handlers; if it throws it recurses until the app dies) — and its intent-comment is the whole safeguard.

Anti-patterns

• onTap: () => asyncMethod() — drops the Future and its error, uncaught by any lint. Route through a void handler.
• if (!mounted) return; before the await — proves nothing; the hazard is after the suspension point.
• One guard for two awaits — the second await reopens the hole.
• unawaited(f) with no catchError on a fallible path — silences the lint, keeps the bug.
• assert(await plugin.call() == ok) — vanishes in release; total silence on the device.
• throw e inside a catch — resets the stack to the rethrow line; use rethrow.
• async initState, or .then(...) off it with no mounted guard — setState on a disposed widget throws.
• pumpAndSettle for timers — pump() does not advance a fake clock; use pump(duration) or fakeAsync.
• runZonedGuarded — a footgun without a crash SDK; two error handlers suffice.
• Promoting a void handler method to Future<void> — returns the arrow-callback hole to the codebase.

Catalogue your silent-failure modes

For any real app, enumerate its silent-failure paths a priori as a closed list, tagged by testability — D (testable in Dart) · I (integration only) · M (manual only) · X (structurally untestable). This catalogue becomes the spine of the test strategy: reason against it as a closed set, and when you touch a listed mechanism, restore its mitigation. The honest value is that the highest-severity paths — a plugin reporting success while doing nothing, a resource GC'd since last launch — often land in M/X, and naming them prevents papering over a gap with a mock that proves nothing. When you discover an (n+1)th way to go silent, add it to the catalogue.

Definition of done

• Every await before a context use has a mounted/ref.mounted guard between them, or the object was captured before the gap.
• Multiple awaits ⇒ the guard sits after the last one.
• No callback method that a VoidCallback slot invokes returns a Future.
• Every unawaited(...) ends in a .catchError or is provably total.
• Every StreamSubscription, StreamController, Timer, and sink is released in dispose() / ref.onDispose.
• Every timer/stream callback calling setState guards mounted first.
• Every catch is typed, logs its stack, and surfaces the failure (crash logger excepted); rethrow, never throw e.
• No assert wraps a platform/plugin return value.
• Nothing unbounded runs before runApp; no runZonedGuarded.

Related skills

• See error-handling-typed-results for the sealed Result/Failure spine that lets save() return outcomes instead of throwing, and the global error net.
• See state-management-riverpod for ref.mounted, ref.onDispose, and stream providers that own teardown.
• See app-startup-and-bootstrap for the main() ordering, the two global error handlers, and deferred warm-up.
• See lint-and-style-config for promoting use_build_context_synchronously, unawaited_futures, discarded_futures, cancel_subscriptions, and close_sinks to error.
• See testing-strategy for the clock-injected fake-async tests that exercise timers and the silent-failure catalogue.

References

• Async programming: https://dart.dev/libraries/async/async-await
• use_build_context_synchronously: https://dart.dev/tools/linter-rules/use_build_context_synchronously
• unawaited / discarded_futures: https://dart.dev/tools/linter-rules/discarded_futures
• State.mounted and BuildContext.mounted: https://api.flutter.dev/flutter/widgets/State/mounted.html
• PlatformDispatcher.onError: https://api.flutter.dev/flutter/dart-ui/PlatformDispatcher/onError.html
• Handling errors in Flutter: https://docs.flutter.dev/testing/errors