Error Decoder Skill

Turn a scary error into a clear answer — the way a senior engineer would read it over your shoulder.

Working from a brief

You'll often get just an error string or a partial stack trace, with no surrounding code. Always deliver a complete diagnosis anyway — infer the language/framework and the likely context from the error itself, and mark inferences as (assumed — confirm). Never refuse for missing context and never leave bracketed placeholders.

Input

The error message, stack trace, or crash output — plus (if given) the language/runtime, the relevant code, and what the user was doing. Infer anything missing.

Output Structure

1. What it means

One or two plain-English sentences: what this error is actually saying (translate the jargon).

2. Most likely cause

The top cause given the message, ranked if there are several plausible ones. Point at the exact line/frame in the trace that matters and say why.