Better error messages from plutus

[CarlosLopezDeLara]

What

Error messages given by CLI should

• Give specific, usable details about the error.
• Reveal what caused the error.
• Help the user to solve the error.

Limitations: Plutus has limited space so they need to put just an error code. We need:

On this discovery process our goal is:

• [ ] Determine feasibility of a parser that can translate the minute error messages coming from plutus script failures to a more human readable error message. Plutus has a md file in their repo, so should not be that hard just guessing
• [ ] Discover limitations to better error messages (and options) from Plutus-Ledger integration.

Why

Cryptic, unclear error messages can lead to waste of time and frustration. Good error messages reduce friction and make the coding experience more enjoyable.

Benefits by persona

Dapp Developers, SPO: Quick recovery from errors, improved satisfaction.

Dependencies

Responsibility of implementing this should be on Plutus team.

[gufmar]

Here too it might makes sense to assign unique error codes, as suggested for node operation errors:

https://github.com/input-output-hk/cardano-node/issues/4331#issuecomment-1317568752