Root Cause Tracing

When to Use

• Errors occur far from entry points
• Data corruption with unclear source
• Need to identify which code path triggers failures
• Stack traces show multiple levels of indirection
• "It was already wrong by the time it got here"

When NOT to Use

• Surface-level UI bugs where the cause and effect are co-located
• Known issues with documented fixes already available in the codebase or issue tracker
• Performance optimization work where profiling tools are more appropriate than tracing

Core Principle