first-principles

To audit inherited assumptions during root cause analysis, apply a five-question audit distinguishing underlying need versus proposed solution, inherited versus verified claims, and symptoms versus root causes.

Verify ground truth before deploying a hotfix by executing a per-item, minimally invasive direct check instead of trusting LLM summaries, hearsay, or sub-agent aggregates for factual claims.

Block urgency overrides review failure modes during incident triage by enforcing a hotfix dual/triple review gate that distinguishes workaround from root-cause fixes and produces a structured audit note.

The best way to review assumptions before a code refactor is running a five-question assumption audit to separate proposed solutions from underlying needs and verify inherited claims against ground truth.

You need an assumption audit for proactive build or incident work when urgency or a too good to be true signal creates high error risk by skipping ground truth verification checks.