| name | debugging |
| description | Systematic debugging knowledge. Use when diagnosing errors, investigating unexpected behavior, doing root cause analysis, or troubleshooting production issues. |
| triggers | ["debug","bug","error","troubleshoot","root cause","investigate","incident"] |
Debugging
Use this skill for systematic diagnosis of complex problems, root cause analysis, and resolution.
Context collection
Before starting, collect:
| Information | Why it matters |
|---|
| Symptoms and error messages | Starting point for investigation |
| Environment (dev/staging/prod) | Determines available tools and access |
| Steps to reproduce | Allows hypothesis validation |
| Timeline of when it started | Correlates with deploys/changes |
| Recent changes | Primary candidates for root cause |
Diagnostic approach
- Symptom analysis — Understand exactly what's happening
- Hypothesis formation — List possible causes ordered by probability
- Systematic elimination — Test each hypothesis methodically
- Evidence collection — Document logs, stack traces, data
- Root cause isolation — Find the real cause, not just symptoms
- Solution validation — Confirm the fix resolves the problem
Tools
- database MCPs to check suspicious data states
- monitoring MCPs (Datadog, SigNoz, etc.) for metrics and logs
- infrastructure MCPs (AWS, Kubernetes) for production debugging
- the relevant tech skill to understand expected patterns
Resolution checklist
