# Root Cause Tracing

> Find the cause behind a symptom. Use when a failure repeats, appears indirect, or has multiple possible causes.

- Skill: `lubochka/root-cause-tracing` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add lubochka/root-cause-tracing`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/lubochka/root-cause-tracing/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: AI & ML
- Author: lubochka (https://skillmd.com/u/lubochka)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/lubochka/root-cause-tracing

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# Root Cause Tracing

## Purpose
Find the cause behind a symptom.

## When to Use
Use when a failure repeats, appears indirect, or has multiple possible causes.

## Inputs
Reproduction steps, logs, changed files, dependency boundaries.

## Steps
1. Reproduce or isolate the symptom.
2. Trace backward to the first bad point.
3. Test one hypothesis at a time.
4. Confirm the fix addresses the cause.

## Gates
The explanation accounts for the observed symptom and the chosen fix.

## Evidence
Repro notes, hypothesis checks, and before/after behavior.

## Anti-Patterns
Treating downstream error messages as the root cause.

## Related
`failure-triage`, `systematic-debugging`