debug-investigator
A strict, evidence-based debugging workflow that prioritizes reproduction over guessing.
Install
mkdir -p .claude/skills/debug-investigator && curl -L -o skill.zip "https://agentskills.codes/api/skills/download/9763" && unzip -o skill.zip -d .claude/skills/debug-investigator && rm skill.zipInstalls to .claude/skills/debug-investigator
Activation
This is the description your AI agent reads to decide when to run this skill — the better it matches your request, the more reliably it fires.
Apply a systematic reproduce, isolate, hypothesize, test, and verify loop to debug failures and preserve root-cause knowledge.Key capabilities
- →Reproduce deterministic failures
- →Isolate problem space and code paths
- →Formulate explicit debugging hypotheses
How it works
The skill enforces a disciplined five-step loop of reproduction, isolation, hypothesis, testing, and verification to ensure root-cause resolution.
Inputs & outputs
When to use debug-investigator
- →Debugging persistent production issues
- →Isolating complex state bugs
- →Root cause analysis
About this skill
Debug Investigator — systematic, not vibes-based
Follow this loop every time. Jumping straight to "fix" without reproducing is how false fixes ship.
The loop
- Reproduce. Get a deterministic failure. If you can't reproduce, you can't fix.
- Isolate. Bisect the problem space: narrow inputs, narrow code paths, narrow time windows.
- Hypothesize. Form one explicit hypothesis. Write it in
memory/working/WORKSPACE.mdunder "Active hypotheses". - Test the hypothesis. A single change that proves or disproves it — no shotgun fixes.
- Verify. After the fix, re-run the repro. If the bug is gone, the repro is your new regression test.
What to log
- Each hypothesis that was wrong (high importance; these compound into domain knowledge).
- The actual root cause and why it wasn't obvious.
Anti-patterns
- "It works now, not sure why" — keep investigating.
- Adding
try/exceptto silence an error without understanding it. - Changing five things at once and claiming one of them fixed it.
Self-rewrite hook
If the same class of bug appears 3+ times (timezone bugs, race conditions,
off-by-one), promote a lesson to LESSONS.md and update this skill with
a domain-specific sub-procedure.
When not to use it
- →When jumping to fixes without reproduction
- →When changing multiple variables simultaneously
Limitations
- →Requires a deterministic reproduction case
- →Prohibits shotgun fixes
How it compares
It mandates a systematic, evidence-based debugging loop instead of trial-and-error fixes.
Compared to similar skills
debug-investigator side by side with the closest alternatives in the catalog.
| Skill | Installs | Updated | Safety | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| debug-investigator (this skill) | 0 | 4mo | No flags | Intermediate |
| python-testing-patterns | 77 | 2mo | Review | Intermediate |
| error-handling-patterns | 35 | 2mo | No flags | Intermediate |
| codex-claude-loop | 13 | 9mo | Review | Advanced |
Try saying
Example prompts that trigger this skill in your AI assistant.
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