What problem does it solve? When facing bugs, test failures, or unexpected behavior, the temptation to apply quick symptom fixes leads to thrashing, regressions, and wasted hours. This Skill enforces a disciplined investigation process that finds the actual root cause before any fix is attempted. ## Core Features & Use Cases - Four-Phase Process: Root cause investigation, pattern analysis, hypothesis testing, and implementation, each with concrete checklists and explicit stop conditions. - Supporting Techniques: Includes references for backward call-stack tracing, defense-in-depth validation across layers, and condition-based waiting to replace flaky arbitrary timeouts in tests. - Pressure Resistance: Red-flag lists and rationalization tables counter shortcuts taken under time pressure, authority pressure, or after repeated failed fixes, including a rule to question the architecture after three failed attempts. - Use Case: A test suite fails intermittently in CI. Instead of adding longer sleeps, follow Phase 1 to gather evidence across components, trace the bad value to its source, then fix it at the origin with a failing test proving the resolution. ## Quick Start Ask the AI to debug a failing test or production bug using the systematic-debugging skill and require root cause evidence before any fix is proposed.
