Debugging

Systematic methodology for finding and fixing bugs. Prioritizes root cause analysis over symptom treatment, evidence over intuition, and prevention over recurrence.

Iron Law

No fix without root cause. Never apply a fix until you can explain WHY the bug exists, not just WHERE it manifests. Symptom-level fixes create new bugs.

When to Use

• Bug report from QA or production alert
• Test failure with unclear cause
• Intermittent/flaky behavior
• Performance degradation
• Unexpected behavior that "used to work"
• Integration failures between components

Workflow