| name | cd-symptom-page |
| description | Generate symptom pages for the CD migration guide following the standard template |
| user_invocable | true |
CD Symptom Page Generator
Role: implementation. This skill generates new content files following
the symptom page template.
Generate a new symptom page for the "Symptoms" section of the CD migration guide.
Constraints
- Follow the template exactly. Do not invent new sections or skip required ones.
- Be concise. Generate the page and report validation results. No preambles.
- Validate before finishing. Run all validation checks in the instructions before considering the work complete.
Instructions
- Ask the user which symptom to write if not already specified. Ask which subdirectory it belongs in:
testing/, deployment/, flow/, or visibility/.
- Read a canonical example at
content/en/docs/symptoms/deployment/fear-of-deploying.md to calibrate tone, depth, and structure.
- Identify related anti-pattern pages from the list below. Every cause MUST link to an existing anti-pattern page.
- Generate the page following the template below.
- Validate before finishing:
- Run
/grammar-check on the generated file to catch and fix any prohibited punctuation.
- Verify all
**Read more:** links point to existing anti-pattern pages.
- Verify all links in "How to narrow it down" point to existing pages.
- Confirm "Common causes" has 2-5 subsections.
- Confirm description is under 160 characters.
Template
---
aliases:
- /docs/symptoms/[slug]/
title: "[Descriptive Title - What the Team Experiences]"
linkTitle: "[Short display title]"
description: >
[One-to-two sentence description under 160 characters. Describe the observable symptom
and its immediate impact.]
tags:
- [tag-1]
- [tag-2]
---
## What you are seeing
[2-3 paragraphs describing what a team member observes day to day. Be vivid and specific.
Use present tense. Paint a picture the reader recognizes from their own experience.
The goal is for the reader to say "that's us."]
## Common causes
### [Cause Name - Matches Anti-Pattern Title]
[2 paragraphs explaining how this anti-pattern produces the symptom the reader is
experiencing. Be specific about the mechanism. First paragraph describes the cause,
second paragraph describes the healthier alternative or what changes when the
anti-pattern is addressed.]
**Read more:** [Anti-Pattern Title](../../anti-patterns/[category]/[slug]/)
### [Cause Name 2]
[Same structure as above]
**Read more:** [Anti-Pattern Title](../../anti-patterns/[category]/[slug]/)
[2-5 cause subsections total. Each must link to an existing anti-pattern page.]
## How to narrow it down
1. **[Diagnostic question in bold]** [Brief explanation of what the answer tells you.
Ends with a recommendation to] Start with
[Anti-Pattern Title](../../anti-patterns/[category]/[slug]/).
2. **[Next diagnostic question]** [Same pattern.]
[One numbered item per cause, in a logical diagnostic order - start with the most
common or easiest to identify.]
Content Guidelines
Tone
- Direct, specific, and assertive but not preachy
- Write as a practitioner advising a peer, not a consultant lecturing a client
- State what happens and why - let the reader draw conclusions
- Use "you" and "the team" naturally
- Symptom pages are diagnostic: help the reader identify what is going wrong and where to look
Depth per section
- What you are seeing: 2-3 paragraphs. Vivid enough that the reader recognizes their own situation.
- Common causes: 2 paragraphs per cause. First describes the mechanism, second the alternative.
- How to narrow it down: One numbered item per cause. Each is a yes/no diagnostic question.
Style rules
- Use sentence-style capitalization in headings (only capitalize first word and proper nouns).
- Keep paragraphs to 3-4 sentences maximum.
- Use active voice.
- Section heading is
## What you are seeing (lowercase "you"), not "What You Are Seeing".
- Run
/grammar-check before finishing to catch prohibited punctuation (endashes, emdashes, hyphens used as dashes).
Key differences from anti-pattern pages
- Symptom pages do NOT have
category, risk_level, or weight in front matter.
- Symptom pages do NOT have a
{{% pageinfo %}} block.
- Symptom pages have
aliases in front matter for redirect from old URL structure.
- The title should describe what the team experiences (e.g., "The Team Is Afraid to Deploy"), not the root cause.
Subdirectory Selection
| Subdirectory | When to use |
|---|
testing/ | Symptoms related to test suite health, test reliability, test effectiveness |
deployment/ | Symptoms related to deployment frequency, deployment risk, release process |
flow/ | Symptoms related to work throughput, cycle time, bottlenecks, WIP |
visibility/ | Symptoms related to production observability, team health, knowledge gaps |
Available Anti-Pattern Pages (for cross-referencing)
Every **Read more:** link and every "How to narrow it down" link MUST point to one of these pages. Use relative links from the symptom subdirectory: ../../anti-patterns/[category]/[slug]/
Architecture:
architecture/distributed-monolith - Distributed Monolith
architecture/premature-microservices - Premature Microservices
architecture/tightly-coupled-monolith - Tightly Coupled Monolith
Branching & Integration:
branching-integration/integration-deferred - Integration Deferred
branching-integration/long-lived-feature-branches - Long-Lived Feature Branches
Monitoring & Observability:
monitoring-observability/blind-operations - Blind Operations
Organizational & Cultural:
organizational-cultural/governance-process/cab-gates - CAB Gates
organizational-cultural/planning/deadline-driven-development - Deadline-Driven Development
organizational-cultural/team-dynamics/missing-product-ownership - Missing Product Ownership
organizational-cultural/team-dynamics/pressure-to-skip-testing - Pressure to Skip Testing
organizational-cultural/team-dynamics/thin-spread-teams - Thin-Spread Teams
organizational-cultural/planning/velocity-as-individual-metric - Velocity as Individual Metric
Pipeline & Infrastructure:
pipeline/manual-deployments - Manual Deployments
pipeline/missing-deployment-pipeline - Missing Deployment Pipeline
pipeline/snowflake-environments - Snowflake Environments
Team Workflow:
team-workflow/horizontal-slicing - Horizontal Slicing
team-workflow/knowledge-silos - Knowledge Silos
team-workflow/monolithic-work-items - Monolithic Work Items
team-workflow/push-based-work-assignment - Push-Based Work Assignment
team-workflow/unbounded-wip - Unbounded WIP
team-workflow/undone-work - Undone Work
Testing & Quality:
testing/code-coverage-mandates - Code Coverage Mandates
testing/inverted-test-pyramid - Inverted Test Pyramid
testing/manual-regression-testing-gates - Manual Regression Testing Gates
testing/manual-testing-only - Manual Testing Only
Available Tags
Choose 1-4 tags from this vocabulary:
architecture
batch-size
deployment-automation
environment-consistency
integration-frequency
observability
process-gates
team-dynamics
test-strategy
work-decomposition
Output
Write the generated page to content/en/docs/symptoms/[subdirectory]/[slug].md where [slug] is the symptom name in kebab-case.