debug

The debug skill is designed to guide users through a structured debugging workflow when software behavior is incorrect, unclear, or has regressed. It is intended for situations where an error message, stack trace, or unexpected behavior indicates a problem that cannot be immediately diagnosed. By organizing the debugging process into clear phases, it helps users move from symptom observation to root-cause identification in a systematic way rather than relying on guesswork.

The skill follows a four-step methodology: reproduction, isolation, diagnosis, and fix. In the reproduction phase, it focuses on clarifying expected versus actual behavior and establishing reliable steps to reproduce the issue. The isolation phase narrows down the affected components by reviewing recent changes such as deployments, configuration updates, or dependency changes, while also analyzing logs and error outputs. During diagnosis, the process emphasizes forming and testing hypotheses, tracing execution paths, and identifying the underlying root cause instead of surface-level symptoms. Finally, the fix phase focuses on proposing corrective changes while considering side effects and recommending preventive tests to avoid regressions.

This skill is primarily aimed at developers, DevOps engineers, QA testers, and site reliability engineers who regularly troubleshoot production and development issues. It is especially useful in scenarios such as deployment regressions, environment-specific bugs (e.g., staging vs production differences), or unexplained failures after recent changes. By enforcing a disciplined debugging structure, it reduces trial-and-error debugging and improves consistency in incident resolution workflows.