Debugging Patterns Skill

Systematic problem-solving and error analysis.

The Debugging Mindset

1. Reproduce — Can you make it happen consistently?
2. Isolate — What's the smallest case that fails?
3. Hypothesize — What could cause this?
4. Test — Prove or disprove your hypothesis
5. Fix — Change ONE thing
6. Verify — Did it actually fix it?

Binary Search Debugging

When you don't know where the problem is:

1. Find a known-good state (commit, version, config)