What problem does it solve? Debugging often devolves into whack-a-mole fixes that patch symptoms while the real defect survives. This Skill enforces a disciplined five-phase workflow — investigate, analyze, hypothesize, implement, verify — so every fix is grounded in a confirmed root cause with a regression test proving it works. ## Core Features & Use Cases - Root Cause First (Iron Law): No fix is written until a specific, testable root cause hypothesis is formed from symptoms, code traces, and git history. - Scope Lock: Restricts edits to the affected module via a freeze mechanism, preventing scope creep during a debug session. - Pattern Matching & Hypothesis Testing: Matches bugs against known patterns (race conditions, null propagation, stale cache, config drift) and tests hypotheses with temporary instrumentation, with a 3-strike escalation rule. - Regression Test Requirement: Every fix ships with a test that fails without the fix and passes with it, plus a structured debug report. - Use Case: A user reports "checkout fails intermittently in production." The Skill traces the code path, checks recent commits, identifies a race condition on shared cart state, confirms it with a log probe, applies a minimal fix, and adds a regression test. ## Quick Start Ask the agent to investigate why the payment endpoint returns a 500 error and find the root cause before fixing it.
