investigate

name	investigate
description	Use when debugging errors, unexpected behavior, or root-cause analysis
effort	medium

Iron Law

No fixes without root cause investigation first.

Red Flags

• "I think I know what's wrong, let me just fix it" → STOP, because the Iron Law requires root cause investigation first — guessing without evidence leads to masked bugs.
• "Let me try another approach" → STOP, because the 3-Strike Rule says 3 consecutive wrong hypotheses means ask the user for more context, not guess further.
• "It's probably a race condition" → STOP, because every hypothesis must be stated explicitly and tested minimally before acting — "probably" is not a root cause.
• "Quick fix for now, proper fix later" → STOP, because this is always the wrong approach — investigate first, fix the confirmed cause, write the regression test.
• "The fix only touches one file so no need for a regression test" → STOP, because every confirmed fix gets a regression test immediately — do not ask, just write it.

Investigate

Systematic debugging with root cause investigation. Four phases: investigate, analyze, hypothesize, fix.

When to Use

• User reports errors, stack traces, or unexpected behavior
• "Debug this", "fix this bug", "why is this broken"
• "It was working yesterday"
• 500 errors, TypeErrors, silent failures
• Another skill encounters a reproducible error it cannot resolve

Workflow

1. Investigate — Gather evidence before forming any opinion.

   • Read the exact error message and full stack trace.
   • Identify reproduction conditions (when, where, which input).
   • Check recent changes: git log --oneline -20 and git diff HEAD~5 --stat.
   • Scope the blast radius: Grep/Glob for related files and callers.

2. Analyze — Classify the pattern.

   Pattern	Symptoms	Check
   Race condition	Intermittent failure	Timing/ordering dependency
   State corruption	Wrong values	Trace state mutation points
   Nil/undefined	TypeError	Missing optional chaining
   Import/dep conflict	Module errors	node_modules, version mismatch
   MCP protocol error	Tool invocation failure	Request/response schema mismatch
   Hook execution order	Unexpected side effects	Hook registration sequence
   Skill file parsing	Routing mismatch	YAML frontmatter + pattern match
   Schema drift	Type errors at boundaries	Schema vs handler comparison
   Stale cache	Works after clear	Cache invalidation path
   Config drift	Works locally, fails elsewhere	Environment variable differences

3. Hypothesize & Test — State each hypothesis explicitly before testing.

   • Write it down: "X causes Y because Z"
   • Design a minimal test (add a log, change a condition, isolate)
   • 3-Strike Rule: 3 consecutive wrong hypotheses → STOP and ask the user for more context. Do not guess further.

4. Fix & Verify — Only after root cause is confirmed.

   • Blast Radius Gate: If fix touches >5 files, ask before proceeding.
   • Apply the minimal fix for the confirmed cause.
   • Verify the fix: test FAILS without fix, PASSES with fix.
   • Write a regression test immediately. Do NOT ask — just write it.
   • Run the project's test/lint gates.

Scope Lock

During investigation, do NOT modify files unrelated to the bug. Resist refactoring temptation — this session is for the bug only.

Options

Flag	Values	Default	Description
--scope	<path>	auto-detected	Restrict investigation to directory
--depth	shallow|deep	shallow	shallow=recent changes, deep=full history

Gotchas

• "Quick fix for now" → This is ALWAYS the wrong approach. Investigate first.
• If the bug is in a dependency, confirm the version and check release notes before blaming app code.
• MCP server restart may be needed to clear cached state — verify with a clean restart.
• Don't trust "it works on my machine" — check environment differences.

Subagents

evidence-gatherer: { model: sonnet, constraint: "Read logs, grep codebase, list recent commits — evidence only, no fixes", tools: [Read, Bash, Glob, Grep] }
root-cause-analyst: { model: opus, constraint: "Given evidence, determine the single root cause with confidence score" }

Auto-Save

• Path: .captures/investigate-{slug}-{YYYY-MM-DD}.md
• {slug} = error type lowercased, spaces to hyphens, max 40 chars
• Write the full debug report using the Write tool and tell the user the saved path.

Output

A structured debug report:

## Debug Report

### Symptom
{Original error/behavior}

### Root Cause
{Confirmed cause with evidence}

### Fix
{Changes made — file:line}

### Verification
- [ ] Original scenario no longer reproduces
- [ ] Regression test written and passing
- [ ] Test fails without fix, passes with fix
- [ ] Related tests passing

### Risk: {LOW|MEDIUM|HIGH}
### Confidence: {1-10}/10