# Error Handling Inevitably, the user will say something that your skill can’t handle. It’s best not to think of these as errors on the part of the user, remember there aren’t really errors in conversations. Conversations are naturally cooperative with both parties seeking to continue to a successful outcome. Keeping that in mind you should do your best to avoid Error Handling that is a dead-end. **Avoid** | Speaker | | | ----------- | -------------------------------------- | | **User** | *Timer* | | **Mycroft** | *I'm sorry I can't help you with that* | **Better** | **Speaker** | | | ----------- | ----------------------- | | **Use**r | *Timer* | | **Mycroft** | *A timer for how long?* | | **User** | *5 minutes* | In the first example Mycroft does not give the user any options to finish the job they set out to do. Try to avoid situations where the user has to start the conversation over. ## Help, Cancel, and Stop When designing your skill it's best to think about the universal utterances, help, cancel and stop. At any point while interacting with the user should be able to say “help” to get assistance using the skill. Even if the help is quite simple. In practice --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://mycroft-ai.gitbook.io/docs/skill-development/voice-user-interface-design-guidelines/error-handling.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.