Debugging and Error Recovery

Overview

When something breaks, stop adding features, preserve evidence, and follow a structured process to find and fix the root cause. Guessing wastes time — the triage checklist below works for test failures, build errors, runtime bugs, and production incidents.

Work through the 6-step process in order. Do not skip steps.

When to Use

• Tests fail after a code change
• The build breaks
• Runtime behavior doesn't match expectations
• A bug report arrives
• An error appears in logs or console
• Something worked before and stopped working
• A production incident or alert fires

Process — The 6-Step Triage