What problem does it solve? When facing bugs, test failures, or unexpected behavior, developers often jump to quick symptom fixes that mask the real issue and cause recurring problems. This Skill enforces a disciplined four-phase debugging methodology that finds the actual root cause before any fix is attempted. ## Core Features & Use Cases - Four-Phase Process: Structured workflow covering Root Cause Investigation, Pattern Analysis, Hypothesis Testing, and Implementation, with mandatory completion of each phase before proceeding. - Supporting Techniques: Includes root-cause-tracing for following bugs backward through call stacks, defense-in-depth validation at multiple layers, and condition-based waiting to replace flaky arbitrary timeouts in tests. - Pressure Resistance: Explicit anti-patterns, red flags, and rationalization tables that prevent shortcut fixes under time pressure, plus a rule to question the architecture after three failed fix attempts. - Use Case: A test fails intermittently in CI. Instead of adding longer sleep delays, you trace the data flow backward, find the empty variable causing the failure, fix it at the source, and add validation at each layer so the bug cannot recur. ## Quick Start Ask the AI to debug a failing test or bug using the systematic-debugging process, starting with root cause investigation before proposing any fix.
