Design a Safe Fallback for Structured Output

A mapping layer only runs once content is safe to map. This lesson is about everything that happens when it isn't. Even with the mapping layer from the last lesson enforcing safe component props, that layer still has to do something when the model output does not qualify for mapping at all. When the cards feature relies on structured output, the happy path is clear. The pressure shows up when the model returns malformed JSON or schema mismatched fields and users still need something usable while the UI must not render unsafe content or break layout.

This lesson stays inside practical constraints around acceptable latency, an accuracy threshold enforced by validation, a context length budget that can be exceeded by long generations, a cost ceiling that ...