| name | kb-debugging |
| description | Domain logic for systematic debugging — injected into the debugger agent. Provides common bug patterns and debugging tools reference. Not invoked directly. |
| user-invocable | false |
| disable-model-invocation | true |
Debugging Reference
Supplementary reference for the debugger agent. The core scientific debugging process (Reproduce → Evidence → Hypothesize → Test → Fix → Verify) is defined in the agent itself — this skill provides pattern recognition and tooling guidance.
Common Bug Patterns
Off-by-One Errors
- Check loop boundaries, array indices, fence-post conditions
- Look for
< vs <=, i vs i+1
Null/Undefined References
- Trace the variable back to its origin
- Check all paths — is there a code path where it's never assigned?
- Look for async gaps where state can change
Race Conditions
- Look for shared mutable state accessed from multiple threads/goroutines/processes
- Check for missing locks, atomic operations, or synchronization
- Add ordering guarantees or make state immutable
State Management
- Check if state is being mutated where it shouldn't be
- Look for stale closures, cached values, or shallow copies
- Verify state transitions are valid
Integration Issues
- Check API contracts — is the caller sending what the callee expects?
- Verify serialization/deserialization (JSON types, date formats, encoding)
- Check network timeouts, retries, and error handling
Debugging Tools
- Logging — Add targeted, temporary log statements at key decision points
- Debugger — Set breakpoints at suspicious locations, inspect state
- Git bisect — Find the exact commit that introduced the bug
- Profiler — For performance bugs, identify bottlenecks
- Network tools — For API issues, inspect request/response payloads
Additional Resources
Reference Files
references/debugging-tools.md — Language-specific debuggers, profilers, and diagnostic toolsreferences/common-errors.md — Common error patterns by language and framework
