Systematic Debugging

Four-phase scientific method for root-cause analysis. Integrates with slow-is-fast reasoning principles.

Iron Law: No fix without verified root cause. Never say "this should fix it."

Phase 1: Root Cause Investigation

1.1 Collect Symptoms

Gather all available evidence before forming any hypothesis:

• Read the full error message/stack trace
• Identify when it started (check git log --oneline -20 for recent changes)
• Determine reproduction conditions (always? intermittent? environment-specific?)
• Check if there are related error reports or failing tests

1.2 Reproduce