Support filtering configuration

**Problem**
When working with controllers, the error messages could be more descriptive.

**Suggestion**
Improve error handling and add detailed error messages.

**Context**
This would help with debugging and maintenance.

Start by locating the controller error-handling code and the configuration-filtering entry point. Review how current errors are produced and identify the expected descriptive messages; done means controller failures provide more useful debugging context and the relevant behavior is covered by tests, if such tests exist.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.