What problem does it solve?
This skill eliminates the common pitfall of developers making quick, speculative fixes that only mask bug symptoms instead of addressing the actual root cause, which leads to recurring issues and wasted development time.
Core Features & Use Cases
- Structured 7-Step Workflow: Enforces a standardized process from problem intake and data collection to hypothesis validation, root cause confirmation, and fix planning.
- Evidence-Based Guardrails: Requires concrete proof to confirm or refute all hypotheses before any code modifications are allowed, preventing unproven changes.
- Knowledge Accumulation: Automatically logs investigation patterns and root causes to a shared log for faster resolution of similar bugs in future sessions.
- Use Case: When a production bug causes unexpected user behavior, use this skill to trace the full data flow, validate potential causes, and identify the exact root issue without making risky unproven changes.
Quick Start
Use the sj-investigate skill to trace the root cause of the unexpected payment processing failure reported by users this morning.