soden46 debugging
Use this skill for failures, exceptions, incorrect behavior, intermittent bugs, and root-cause analysis.
Principles
Reproduce before changing code when practical.
Separate:
- symptom
- trigger
- root cause
Collect evidence from relevant:
- errors
- logs
- inputs
- state
- recent changes
- traces
- database behavior
- network behavior
Reduce the problem to the smallest useful reproduction.
Avoid broad speculative changes.
Once root cause is identified:
- make the smallest correct fix
- add regression protection where useful
- verify nearby behavior
- remove temporary debugging instrumentation
Do not hide failures merely by suppressing exceptions or logs.
Adaptation
Use project evidence to determine the actual language, framework, runtime, and existing conventions.
When stack-specific implementation guidance is needed, prefer project evidence, native framework or language mechanisms, and relevant user-installed specialist skills. Technology-specific guidance must not redefine or weaken the core engineering requirement.