Systematic Debugging

Purpose

• Prevent guess-driven bug fixing.
• Turn a vague failure into a proved root cause.
• Separate symptom collection from patching.
• Minimize regressions while repairing defects.
• Leave behind a reproducible explanation of the failure.

Activation Signals

• Use this skill when the root cause is unknown.
• Use this skill when a previous fix attempt failed.
• Use this skill when the bug spans multiple files or layers.
• Use this skill when logs, stack traces, or user reports disagree.
• Use this skill when the fix must be defensible in review.

Debugging Phases