How to Continue a Pipeline After a Failure With catchError in Jenkins

catchError runs a block and records a failure as a chosen result instead of immediately aborting the pipeline.

Wrap risky steps in catchError(buildResult: '...', stageResult: '...'). The block can fail without stopping the run, so cleanup, reporting, or notification stages still execute.

Steps

• Wrap the failing-prone steps in a catchError(...) block.
• Set buildResult (e.g. UNSTABLE) and stageResult (e.g. FAILURE).
• Put report or notify stages after it so they still run.

Jenkinsfile

pipeline {
  agent any
  stages {
    stage('Test') {
      steps {
        catchError(buildResult: 'UNSTABLE', stageResult: 'FAILURE') {
          sh 'npm test'
        }
      }
    }
    stage('Publish report') {
      steps {
        junit 'reports/*.xml'
      }
    }
  }
}

Gotchas

• For non-fatal cleanup, warnError('message') is a shorter form that marks the build unstable.
• A swallowed failure can hide real regressions; scope catchError narrowly.

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