# Exa Advanced Troubleshooting

> Apply Exa advanced debugging techniques for hard-to-diagnose issues. Use when standard troubleshooting fails, investigating complex race conditions, or preparing evidence bundles for Exa support escalation. Trigger with phrases like "exa hard bug", "exa mystery error", "exa impossible to debug", "difficult exa issue", "exa deep debug".

- Skill: `tools-only/exa-advanced-troubleshooting` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 3 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds add tools-only/exa-advanced-troubleshooting`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/tools-only/exa-advanced-troubleshooting/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- License: MIT
- Author: tools-only (https://skillmd.com/u/tools-only)
- Updated: 2026-09-08
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/tools-only/exa-advanced-troubleshooting

---


# Exa Advanced Troubleshooting

## Overview
Deep debugging techniques for complex Exa issues that resist standard troubleshooting.

## Prerequisites
- Access to production logs and metrics
- kubectl access to clusters
- Network capture tools available
- Understanding of distributed tracing

## Evidence Collection Framework

### Comprehensive Debug Bundle
```bash
#!/bin/bash
# advanced-exa-debug.sh

BUNDLE="exa-advanced-debug-$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S)"
mkdir -p "$BUNDLE"/{logs,metrics,network,config,traces}

# 1. Extended logs (1 hour window)
kubectl logs -l app=exa-integration --since=1h > "$BUNDLE/logs/pods.log"
journalctl -u exa-service --since "1 hour ago" > "$BUNDLE/logs/system.log"

# 2. Metrics dump
curl -s localhost:9090/api/v1/query?query=exa_requests_total > "$BUNDLE/metrics/requests.json"
curl -s localhost:9090/api/v1/query?query=exa_errors_total > "$BUNDLE/metrics/errors.json"

# 3. Network capture (30 seconds)
timeout 30 tcpdump -i any port 443 -w "$BUNDLE/network/capture.pcap" &

# 4. Distributed traces
curl -s localhost:16686/api/traces?service=exa > "$BUNDLE/traces/jaeger.json"

# 5. Configuration state
kubectl get cm exa-config -o yaml > "$BUNDLE/config/configmap.yaml"
kubectl get secret exa-secrets -o yaml > "$BUNDLE/config/secrets-redacted.yaml"

tar -czf "$BUNDLE.tar.gz" "$BUNDLE"
echo "Advanced debug bundle: $BUNDLE.tar.gz"
```

## Systematic Isolation

### Layer-by-Layer Testing

```typescript
// Test each layer independently
async function diagnoseExaIssue(): Promise<DiagnosisReport> {
  const results: DiagnosisResult[] = [];

  // Layer 1: Network connectivity
  results.push(await testNetworkConnectivity());

  // Layer 2: DNS resolution
  results.push(await testDNSResolution('api.exa.com'));

  // Layer 3: TLS handshake
  results.push(await testTLSHandshake('api.exa.com'));

  // Layer 4: Authentication
  results.push(await testAuthentication());

  // Layer 5: API response
  results.push(await testAPIResponse());

  // Layer 6: Response parsing
  results.push(await testResponseParsing());

  return { results, firstFailure: results.find(r => !r.success) };
}
```

### Minimal Reproduction

```typescript
// Strip down to absolute minimum
async function minimalRepro(): Promise<void> {
  // 1. Fresh client, no customization
  const client = new ExaClient({
    apiKey: process.env.EXA_API_KEY!,
  });

  // 2. Simplest possible call
  try {
    const result = await client.ping();
    console.log('Ping successful:', result);
  } catch (error) {
    console.error('Ping failed:', {
      message: error.message,
      code: error.code,
      stack: error.stack,
    });
  }
}
```

## Timing Analysis

```typescript
class TimingAnalyzer {
  private timings: Map<string, number[]> = new Map();

  async measure<T>(label: string, fn: () => Promise<T>): Promise<T> {
    const start = performance.now();
    try {
      return await fn();
    } finally {
      const duration = performance.now() - start;
      const existing = this.timings.get(label) || [];
      existing.push(duration);
      this.timings.set(label, existing);
    }
  }

  report(): TimingReport {
    const report: TimingReport = {};
    for (const [label, times] of this.timings) {
      report[label] = {
        count: times.length,
        min: Math.min(...times),
        max: Math.max(...times),
        avg: times.reduce((a, b) => a + b, 0) / times.length,
        p95: this.percentile(times, 95),
      };
    }
    return report;
  }
}
```

## Memory and Resource Analysis

```typescript
// Detect memory leaks in Exa client usage
const heapUsed: number[] = [];

setInterval(() => {
  const usage = process.memoryUsage();
  heapUsed.push(usage.heapUsed);

  // Alert on sustained growth
  if (heapUsed.length > 60) { // 1 hour at 1/min
    const trend = heapUsed[59] - heapUsed[0];
    if (trend > 100 * 1024 * 1024) { // 100MB growth
      console.warn('Potential memory leak in exa integration');
    }
  }
}, 60000);
```

## Race Condition Detection

```typescript
// Detect concurrent access issues
class ExaConcurrencyChecker {
  private inProgress: Set<string> = new Set();

  async execute<T>(key: string, fn: () => Promise<T>): Promise<T> {
    if (this.inProgress.has(key)) {
      console.warn(`Concurrent access detected for ${key}`);
    }

    this.inProgress.add(key);
    try {
      return await fn();
    } finally {
      this.inProgress.delete(key);
    }
  }
}
```

## Support Escalation Template

```markdown
## Exa Support Escalation

**Severity:** P[1-4]
**Request ID:** [from error response]
**Timestamp:** [ISO 8601]

### Issue Summary
[One paragraph description]

### Steps to Reproduce
1. [Step 1]
2. [Step 2]

### Expected vs Actual
- Expected: [behavior]
- Actual: [behavior]

### Evidence Attached
- [ ] Debug bundle (exa-advanced-debug-*.tar.gz)
- [ ] Minimal reproduction code
- [ ] Timing analysis
- [ ] Network capture (if relevant)

### Workarounds Attempted
1. [Workaround 1] - Result: [outcome]
2. [Workaround 2] - Result: [outcome]
```

## Instructions

### Step 1: Collect Evidence Bundle
Run the comprehensive debug script to gather all relevant data.

### Step 2: Systematic Isolation
Test each layer independently to identify the failure point.

### Step 3: Create Minimal Reproduction
Strip down to the simplest failing case.

### Step 4: Escalate with Evidence
Use the support template with all collected evidence.

## Output
- Comprehensive debug bundle collected
- Failure layer identified
- Minimal reproduction created
- Support escalation submitted

## Error Handling
| Issue | Cause | Solution |
|-------|-------|----------|
| Can't reproduce | Race condition | Add timing analysis |
| Intermittent failure | Timing-dependent | Increase sample size |
| No useful logs | Missing instrumentation | Add debug logging |
| Memory growth | Resource leak | Use heap profiling |

## Examples

### Quick Layer Test
```bash
# Test each layer in sequence
curl -v https://api.exa.com/health 2>&1 | grep -E "(Connected|TLS|HTTP)"
```

## Resources
- [Exa Support Portal](https://support.exa.com)
- [Exa Status Page](https://status.exa.com)

## Next Steps
For load testing, see `exa-load-scale`.