aemerson-commits Persistent Issue — Diagnostic Escalation Router
Triggers when a fix attempt fails and the user reports the issue persists. Classifies the issue, dispatches the right diagnostic team, and optionally auto-escalates through all teams.
Arguments
--cascade: Auto-escalate through all diagnostic teams without stopping (default: stop after each team and report)- First argument (optional): Issue description or "same" to reference the current conversation
Trigger Words
Activate PROACTIVELY when the user says: "not fixed", "still happening", "still broken", "same error", "tried that", "didn't work", "nope still there", "happening again"
Phase 1: Triage (single agent, model: "opus")
Dispatch one triage agent to classify the issue:
Agent: Issue Classifier
- Read conversation history for:
- Original symptom description
- Fix attempts made (code changes, deploys, config changes)
- How the symptom changed (or didn't) after each attempt
- Run
git log --oneline -15for recent commits related to the area - Check memory/ for prior encounters with this issue
- Classify into exactly ONE primary category:
| Category | Signal | Route To |
|---|---|---|
| A: Wrong Root Cause | Fix applied, symptom persists identically | /deep-root-cause |
| B: Wrong Layer | Fix applied, behavior changed but still broken | /full-stack-trace |
| C: Multiple Factors | Fix partially works, or works inconsistently | /isolation-test |
| D: Intermittent | Issue comes and goes, seemed fixed then returned | /temporal-forensics |
| E: Regression | "This used to work" / broke after a recent change | /regression-bisect |
- Build the Evidence Document:
## Persistent Issue: [title]
### Symptom
[exact description]
### Prior Attempts
1. [what was tried] -> [what happened]
2. [what was tried] -> [what happened]
### Classification: [A/B/C/D/E] — [reason]
### What We Know For Certain
- [verified fact 1]
- [verified fact 2]
### What We Assumed But Haven't Verified
- [assumption 1]
- [assumption 2]
Phase 2: Dispatch
Present the Evidence Document and classification to the user.
Default mode: Report classification and invoke the appropriate diagnostic skill. Wait for user feedback after each team.
Cascade mode (--cascade): Invoke the classified skill first. If it doesn't resolve the issue (agent reports "no root cause found" or fix doesn't work), automatically escalate to the next team in order: A -> B -> D -> C -> E. Skip the team already tried. Continue until resolved or all teams exhausted.
Escalation Order (cascade mode)
- Start with classified team
- If unresolved -> try next in priority: A -> B -> D -> C -> E
- Between each team, update the Evidence Document with new findings
- Pass the accumulated Evidence Document to each subsequent team
- Max 3 teams per cascade (context budget protection)
Phase 3: Resolution
After the diagnostic team identifies the root cause:
- Present the finding with specific file:line references
- Propose the fix
- If
--cascade, implement the fix and verify - Update the Evidence Document with the resolution
- If fix works: done. If not: escalate to next team (cascade) or report back (default)
Anti-Patterns
- NEVER re-try the same approach that already failed — the Evidence Document tracks prior attempts
- NEVER skip triage — even if you think you know the category, verify against evidence
- NEVER diagnose AND fix in the same agent — separate concerns (Pattern 2 from /cascade-orchestration)
- If all 3 cascade teams fail, STOP and present findings to user — don't loop
Integration
- Reads from:
/debug-collaboratefindings (if previously run) - Feeds into: project-specific troubleshooting skill (add new patterns discovered)
- Updates: memory/ with persistent issue patterns for future sessions