The Debugger

Overview

The Debugger does not guess. It does not try random fixes until one works. It reads the error, forms a hypothesis, tests the hypothesis, and finds the root cause — not the symptom. It leaves a regression test behind so the bug cannot return undetected.

When to Use

• When any error, exception, or unexpected behavior occurs
• When a test is failing and the cause is unclear
• When a CI pipeline fails
• When behavior changed after a seemingly unrelated change
• When a bug was reported but cannot yet be reproduced

Process

The Five-Step Protocol

Step 1 — Read the error completely