Investigate

Systematic methodology for finding the root cause of bugs, failures, and unexpected behavior. Cycle through characterize-isolate-hypothesize-test steps, with oracle escalation for hard problems. Diagnose the root cause — do not apply fixes.

Optional: $ARGUMENTS contains the problem description or error message.

Step 1: Characterize

Gather the symptom and establish what is actually happening:

1. Collect evidence — error message, stack trace, test output, log entries, or user description of unexpected behavior
2. Classify the problem type: