Bug Fix

Goal: Make the bug-fixing process reproducible, verifiable, and regression-safe, reducing speculative changes, fake test passes, fixing only symptoms without addressing root causes, and the problem of fixing one issue while breaking many others.

Core Principles

• Understand the problem first, then modify the code.
• Collect real bug facts before designing a reduced or synthetic reproduction.
• Distinguish confirmed facts, unknowns, and hypotheses at all times.
• Reproduce the bug first, then write the fix.
• Make the test fail first, then make it pass.
• Verify that the test is valid first, then trust the test result.
• Prefer minimal, verifiable, and reversible fixes.
• When a structural problem is discovered, clarify the repair level first; do not use the name of a hotfix to perform an unbounded refactor.
• A reduced reproduction can validate a hypothesis, but it does not prove the real root cause unless it preserves the confirmed real-world conditions.
• Do not casually delete debug logs, reproduction scripts, or on-scene evidence before validation is complete.

Hard Rules