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principle-fix-root-causes

Guides debugging by tracing symptoms to root causes and fixing them there.

6.6k|542|Updated Jan 23, 2026
Search Tags:#Troubleshooting#Debugging#Root Cause Analysis#Bug Fixing#Code quality#Software Engineering
One-click install
npx skills add https://github.com/cursor/plugins --skill principle-fix-root-causes
Or copy as Structured Prompt for Agent▼
Please help me install this Agent Skill.
Skill: principle-fix-root-causes
Source: https://github.com/cursor/plugins/tree/main/pstack/skills/principle-fix-root-causes
Command: npx skills add https://github.com/cursor/plugins --skill principle-fix-root-causes

SYSTEM DOCUMENTATION & REQUIREMENTS

What problem does it solve?

Debugging often produces quick symptom-level patches like nil checks and guards that silence crashes while leaving the real bug in place. This Skill enforces a disciplined root-cause debugging methodology so fixes address the actual defect instead of accumulating workarounds.

Core Features & Use Cases

  • Root-Cause Tracing: Reproduce the bug first, then ask "why" repeatedly until the underlying cause is found and fixed there.
  • Anti-Pattern Detection: Resist guard-based symptom fixes, treat paragraph-long justification comments as a smell, and grep for the same pattern to fix all instances.
  • Restart Bug Diagnosis: When failures appear after restart, suspect stale persistent state (config files, caches, lock files, serialized state) before suspecting code.
  • Use Case: A crash reappears after every deploy. Instead of adding another nil check, reproduce it, trace the nil to its source, and fix the initialization logic that produces it.

Quick Start

Apply the fix-root-causes principle to debug this recurring crash and trace it to its underlying cause instead of adding a guard.

Frequently Asked Questions about principle-fix-root-causes

High-intent search queries and answers about installing and using this skill.

FAQPage Schema
How do I find the root cause of a bug instead of patching symptoms?▼

Reproduce the bug first, since an unreproducible bug cannot be verified as fixed. Then ask "why" repeatedly until you reach the root cause, and fix the code there rather than adding guards that silence the symptom.

Why is adding a nil check to stop a crash considered a bad fix?▼

A nil check that silences a crash is a symptom fix: the real defect that produced the nil remains in the system. Symptom fixes accumulate, making the codebase harder to reason about while total debugging time increases.

Why does my application fail after restart but work otherwise?▼

Code does not change between runs, but state does. Suspect stale persistent state first: config files, caches, lock files, or serialized state. If clearing a state file restores behavior, prioritize state validation as the fix.

What should I do when I am stuck debugging a problem?▼

Instrument instead of guessing. Add logging and read the actual error output rather than hypothesizing. Also grep for the same pattern elsewhere in the codebase and fix all instances, not just the one you found.

When is a workaround acceptable instead of a root-cause fix?▼

If a workaround needs a paragraph-long comment to justify it, the code is wrong and should be fixed instead. Legitimate temporary workarounds are rare; the default should be fixing the code, not the comment.

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