investigate

Root-cause debugging systematically collects symptoms, traces code paths, and documents findings to fix software bugs, timeouts, and regressions. You need it when silent fix-attempts fail or repeated outages occur across modules.

To investigate a stack trace, collect symptoms, read the code path to locate root causes, and document findings. The process involves checking recent git history, grepping code, and running non-destructive checks to propose verifiable hypotheses.

Debugging a regression across modules requires an eight-step flow: gather symptoms, trace errors, read code paths, check git history, grep code, run non-destructive checks, test hypotheses, and document the verified root cause with evidence.

Yes, you can use git log and grep to trace recent code changes during a debugging investigation. The skill supports reading git history and grepping code to identify regressions and propose verifiable hypotheses for remediation.

The best way to document root-cause analysis is to record symptoms, reproducible steps, tested hypotheses, and the final root cause with evidence. This guided remediation approach locks scope and prevents silent fix-attempts or repeated outages.

Bug fixes fail without systematic root-cause investigation because silent fix-attempts skip symptom collection and code path tracing. A structured eight-step flow identifies the actual root cause, tests hypotheses, and documents evidence before shipping a verified fix.