Root-Cause Fixes

A fix either removes the cause or it hides the symptom. This skill exists so that you only ever ship the first kind — and so the human never has to stop you and ask "is that actually a proper fix?", because that question is already answered before you write a line.

The rule

The root-cause fix is the only default. There is no acceptable bandaid.

Two outcomes are allowed, and only two:

1. Fix the root cause properly — the real fix, in proper code.
2. If the proper fix is genuinely infeasible right now (it needs a large refactor, a design decision, an upstream change), STOP. Surface what you found, name the real fix and its honest cost, and let your human partner decide whether to defer. They make that call — you don't make it for them by quietly shipping a workaround.

What you must never do: silently apply a patch/workaround and present it as done. "Technically the problem goes away" is not the bar. Errors only grow — a bandaid leaks into the surrounding code, and the next person inherits both the original defect and the workaround obscuring it.

Before you write the fix: walk the ladder

You should already know the root cause (via [[systematic-debugging]]). Confirm where the fix belongs: