Tendril Debug Plan

tendril-debug-plan

Debug and analyze Tendril plan executions end-to-end - from plan creation through checking/verification - and produce a set of concrete bugfix and improvement recommendations.

Invocation

/tendril-debug-plan <planid> <note>

• planid - 5-digit Tendril plan ID (e.g., 03451)
• note - free-text context about what to look for (e.g., "verification passed but shouldn't have", "took forever", "got stuck in Building state")

What This Skill Does

1. Gathers all artifacts for a plan: plan.yaml, revisions, logs, costs, verification reports, session JSONL
2. Analyzes the execution timeline, token usage, tool call patterns, and error loops
3. Cross-references findings with Tendril source code and promptware instructions
4. Produces a structured recommendations report with concrete fixes

Execution Steps

Phase 1 - Gather Plan Artifacts

Resolve paths from environment:

• TENDRIL_HOME - base config/data directory
• TENDRIL_PLANS - plans directory (defaults to $TENDRIL_HOME/Plans)
• REPOS_HOME - for locating Tendril source code

Read these files from the plan folder ($TENDRIL_PLANS/{planid}-*/):

The plan folder holds no logs. Every job that ran against the plan wrote its artifacts flat into $TENDRIL_HOME/Jobs/, named {jobId}-{planId}-{promptware}. Find them all for a plan with:

ls "$TENDRIL_HOME/Jobs/"*"-{planid}-"*

Note that the CreatePlan job that created the plan is named {jobId}-CreatePlan with no plan id, so it will not appear in the glob above. Use /tendril-debug-job to drill into any single job.

Phase 2 - Locate and Analyze Session JSONL

Each Job Log contains a SessionId. The raw Claude session data lives at:

~/.claude/projects/*/{SessionId}.jsonl

Use find ~/.claude/projects -name "{SessionId}.jsonl" to locate each file.

For each JSONL session, extract:

Token Usage:

• Sum input_tokens, output_tokens, cache_read_input_tokens, cache_creation_input_tokens from type: "assistant" messages
• Cache hit ratio: cache_read / (cache_read + cache_creation + input)
• Flag messages with unusually high input_tokens (context bloat)

Tool Call Patterns:

• Count each tool type (Read, Write, Edit, Bash, Grep, Glob)
• Identify repeated reads of the same file (redundant)
• Identify failed tool calls and their errors
• Detect thrashing: read-edit-read-edit cycles on the same file

Error Patterns:

• Grep for error, failed, exception, timeout in tool results
• Count compilation fix-retry cycles (build → error → edit → build loops)
• Permission errors, missing files, environmental issues

Time Analysis:

• Wall-clock duration from first to last timestamp
• Long gaps between messages (slow tools, rate limiting)
• Timeout detection

Use the Analyze-SessionJsonl.ps1 tool if available at:

$REPOS_HOME/Ivy-Tendril/src/Ivy.Tendril.TeamIvyConfig/Promptwares/PlanEvaluator/Tools/Analyze-SessionJsonl.ps1

Phase 3 - Analyze the Checking/Verification Pipeline

This is the core debugging focus. Examine:

Pre-execution checks (ExecutePlan Step 1.5–1.8):

• Did dependency checking work correctly? (dependsOn plans completed, PRs merged)
• Did worktree validation catch problems? Or miss them?
• Did code state validation (**Current implementation** blocks) match reality?
• Did auto-commit handle dirty files properly?

Verification execution (ExecutePlan Step 7):

• Which verifications ran vs were skipped?
• Did verifications match what the plan revision checkboxes specified?
• For each verification: did the prompt execute correctly? Were failures diagnosed?
• How many fix-retry cycles occurred (max 3 allowed)?
• Were verification results written to verification/ correctly?
• Were plan verification statuses updated via tendril plan set-verification?

Post-verification (ExecutePlan Step 7.5–8):

• Were recommendations generated?
• Was the worktree left clean?
• Were zombie processes detected/killed?

CheckResult / completion verification (JobService):

• For CreatePlan: did VerifyCreatePlanResult find the plan folder or the identified as duplicate: marker?
• Did CheckDependencies correctly evaluate dependency plan states?
• Did TryBlockForDependencies transition appropriately?

Cross-reference each finding with:

• Promptwares/{Type}/Program.md - could instructions prevent this?
• Promptwares/{Type}/Memory/ - is knowledge missing or ignored?
• Services/JobService.cs - job lifecycle issues
• Services/PlanReaderService.cs - plan state/repair issues
• Ivy.Tendril/Assets/Plans.md - plan schema/CLI reference (embedded in assembly, injected into firmware)

Phase 4 - Produce Recommendations Report

Write the report to $TENDRIL_PLANS/{planid}-*/debug-report.md (alongside the plan).

Use this format:

# Debug Report: {PlanId} - {Title}

- **Analyzed:** {current timestamp}
- **Plan State:** {state}
- **User Note:** {the note argument}
- **Promptwares Run:** {list}
- **Total Tokens:** {sum}
- **Wall-Clock Time:** {duration}

## Executive Summary

{3-5 sentences: what happened, what went wrong, what's the root cause}

## Timeline

| # | Step | Promptware | Status | Duration | Tokens | Notes |
|---|------|------------|--------|----------|--------|-------|
| 1 | CreatePlan | CreatePlan | Completed | 2m30s | 45k | - |
| 2 | Execute | ExecutePlan | Failed | 15m | 280k | build loop |
| ... | | | | | | |

## Checking & Verification Analysis

### Pre-Execution Checks
{What passed, what failed, what was missed}

### Verification Results
| Verification | Expected | Actual | Correct? | Notes |
|-------------|----------|--------|----------|-------|
| Build | Pass | Pass | Yes | - |
| IvyFramework | Pass | Pass | No | Should have caught X |

### Completion Verification
{How JobService verified the result, any gaps}

## Findings

### {Finding Title}

- **Category:** {Token Waste | Error Loop | Missing Knowledge | Instruction Gap | Environmental | Architectural | Verification Gap}
- **Severity:** {Low | Medium | High | Critical}
- **Promptware:** {which one}
- **Evidence:** {specific log lines, timestamps, tool call IDs}

{Description with specific evidence.}

**Root Cause:** {why this happened}

**Recommendation:** {concrete fix - which file to change, what to change, why}

---

{Repeat for each finding}

## Concrete Fixes

Priority-ordered list of specific changes:

1. **[High] {file path}**: {what to change and why}
2. **[Medium] {file path}**: {what to change and why}
3. ...

## Skill Self-Improvement Notes

{If this analysis revealed patterns or techniques that would make future debugging faster,
note them here. These will be incorporated into the skill's references/ directory.}

Key Tendril Files for Cross-Reference

These are the files most likely to contain the root cause of issues:

Rules

• Read-only by default: do NOT modify source code, promptware instructions, or memory files during analysis. The output is a recommendations report.
• Always produce a report, even if no issues are found - "plan executed cleanly" is a valid finding.
• Be specific: cite file paths, line numbers, log timestamps, tool call sequences.
• Focus on the checking pipeline: verification gaps (things that should have been caught but weren't) are higher priority than token waste.
• Use targeted reads: JSONL files can be huge - use offset/limit or grep rather than reading entire files.
• The user's note is your guide: prioritize investigating what the user flagged.

Self-Evolution

This skill is designed to improve over time. After producing a report:

1. If you discovered a new debugging pattern or common failure mode not covered here, write it to references/{topic}.md
2. If a cross-reference path was wrong or a file moved, update the paths in this SKILL.md
3. If the report format could be improved based on what you learned, update the template above

The references/ directory accumulates knowledge from past debugging sessions.