systematic-debugging

name	systematic-debugging
description	Structured debugging methodology using hypothesis-driven investigation, log analysis, and bisection to isolate and resolve defects.
allowed-tools	Read, Write, Edit, Bash, Grep, Glob, WebFetch, WebSearch, Agent, AskUserQuestion
graph	{"domains":["domain:software-engineering"],"skillAreas":["skill-area:agentic-loops","skill-area:orchestration-loop"],"workflows":["workflow:feature-development"],"topics":["topic:developer-experience"],"roles":["role:tech-lead","role:backend-engineer"]}

• Unexpected behavior discovered during testing
• Bug reports require investigation
• Performance issues need root cause analysis

Process

1. Reproduce - Confirm the defect with a minimal reproduction
2. Hypothesize - Form theories about the root cause
3. Investigate - Systematically test hypotheses (logs, breakpoints, bisection)
4. Isolate - Narrow to the specific component/line
5. Fix - Apply targeted fix addressing root cause
6. Verify - Confirm fix resolves the issue without regression

Key Rules

• Never apply fixes without understanding the root cause
• For Strike-3/post-instrumentation handoffs, do not apply a source-code fix until you enumerate at least 3 candidate root-cause hypotheses, give each hypothesis a falsifying log line or observation, and cite concrete log evidence for the selected fix. Use seq number when present; otherwise cite timestamp, log-id, or artifact path plus the exact log line. If no proposed fix cites a specific log line or log record, mark needs-more-data.
• Use web-researcher agent for unfamiliar error patterns
• Document the investigation path for future reference
• Verify that the fix does not introduce regressions

Tool Use

Integrated into methodologies/rpikit/rpikit-implement (failure handling)