Are there any client-side libraries or server-side frameworks that can help abstract away or simplify handling this error?

While direct abstraction of this specific `SyntaxError` is less common, several tools simplify error handling around JSON parsing: * **Client-side (JavaScript):** * **Axios:** A popular HTTP client that automatically parses JSON and provides a structured error object. While it won't prevent `JSON.parse()` from throwing, its error handling mechanisms usually allow you to catch it as part of an `err.response` or `err.message` from the request. You'd still use `try...catch` around the Axios call. * **Custom `fetch` wrappers:** Building a utility function around the native `fetch` API can encapsulate the `response.json()` call within a `try...catch` and return a standardized error object or a default value upon parsing failure. * **Server-side (Node.js):** * **Express.js body-parser:** When using `express.json()` middleware, Express's built-in body-parser handles incoming JSON. If it encounters invalid or truncated JSON (including this error), it will typically pass an error to the Express error handling middleware, which you can configure to send appropriate error responses back to the client. * **Validation Libraries (e.g., Joi, Yup):** These libraries operate *after* successful JSON parsing to validate the structure and types of the data. They won't prevent the initial `SyntaxError` from an incomplete string, but they ensure the *content* of successfully parsed JSON adheres to expectations.