diagnose

name	diagnose
description	Investigate, audit, triage, and fix. Systematic debugging, incident lifecycle, domain auditing, and issue logging. Feedback-loop-first protocol: reproduce or replay before root cause, pattern analysis, hypothesis test, and fix. Use for: any bug, test failure, production incident, error spikes, audit, triage, postmortem, "diagnose", "why is this broken", "debug this", "production down", "is production ok", "audit stripe", "log issues". Trigger: /diagnose.
argument-hint	<symptoms or domain> e.g. "error in auth" or "audit stripe"

/diagnose

Find root cause. Fix it. Prove it works.

Execution Stance

You are the executive orchestrator: keep hypothesis ranking, root-cause proof, and fix selection on the lead model; delegate bounded evidence gathering and implementation to focused subagents. For design-quality root causes, dispatch an ad-hoc lens critic (primitives/shared/references/lenses.md) returning finding · evidence file:line · impact — name the lens, no static agent file.

Delegation

Delegate per the Shared Operating Spine (Act).

• Default: spawn at least two roster-backed Explore lanes to gather evidence — reproduce, trace data flow, report root cause + evidence + proposed fix. They never implement the fix. You rank the findings, confirm root cause is proven, then dispatch a builder.
• Multi-Hypothesis Mode: when more than two plausible causes would make a single investigation anchor on one, spawn one Explore lane per hypothesis to prove or disprove it, then synthesize a consensus root cause before dispatching the fix. Use for ambiguous stack traces or multiple services; skip for an obvious single cause. /research delegate adds multi-model hypothesis validation when useful.

Routing

Intent	Sub-capability
Debug a bug, test failure, unexpected behavior	This file (below)
Need a reproduction strategy	references/feedback-loops.md
"flaky", "flake", "intermittent", "nondeterministic test"	references/flaky-test-investigation.md
"triage", "incident", "postmortem", "production down"	references/triage.md
First argument is a domain name (stripe, quality, etc.)	references/audit.md
"fix"	references/fix.md
"log issues"	references/log-issues.md

No match above → this is a debugging session, continue below.

The user's symptoms: $ARGUMENTS

Learnings

Before root-cause ranking, grep known failures: rg -n --glob '*.md' '^(title|tags|applies_when):|<module>|<symptom>|<failure-mode>' docs/solutions. Open likely matches and test any applicable known cause first.

The Iron Law

NO FIXES WITHOUT A FEEDBACK LOOP AND ROOT CAUSE FIRST

Build the smallest believable pass/fail loop before hypothesizing deeply — the general verification contract lives in primitives/shared/references/verification-system-first.md; diagnose's own loop menu, loop-quality checklist, correct-seam rule, and the instrumented human-reproduction protocol live in references/feedback-loops.md. If no loop is possible with current access, stop and ask for a captured artifact, environment access, or temporary instrumentation.

Rule #1: Config Before Code

External service issues are usually config, not code. Check in order:

1. Env vars present? npx convex env list --prod | grep <SERVICE> or vercel env ls
2. Env vars valid? No trailing whitespace, correct format
3. Endpoints reachable? curl -I -X POST <webhook_url>
4. Then examine code

If the symptom is external-service behavior and the provider surface is supported by emulate.dev, build the feedback loop against the local emulator before blaming production config or writing code. Do not use emulation to prove provider-only concerns such as real auth, billing, quota, or live webhook delivery. Usage details: https://emulate.dev/docs.

Root Cause Discipline

For each hypothesis, categorize:

• ROOT: fixing this removes the fundamental cause.
• SYMPTOM: fixing this masks an underlying issue.

Post-fix question: "If we revert in 6 months, does the problem return?" Rank 3-5 hypotheses when the cause isn't obvious and test one prediction at a time — the full scientific-method protocol, pattern-analysis technique, and the 3+-failed-fixes architecture check live in references/systematic-debugging.md.

Classification

Type	Signals	Approach
Test failure	Assertion error	Read test, trace expectation
Runtime error	Exception, crash	Stack trace -> source -> state
Type error	TS complaint	Read error, check types
Build failure	Bundler error	Check deps, config
Behavior mismatch	"Does Y, should do X"	Trace code path
Performance	Slow, timeout	Add timing instrumentation
Production incident	Incident tracker, alerts	Route to references/triage.md

Red Flags — Stop and Rebuild the Loop

• Multiple simultaneous changes, or a fix proposed before data flow is traced.
• "One more fix attempt" when 2+ already failed — run the architecture check in references/systematic-debugging.md instead.
• Each fix reveals a new problem elsewhere — the loop is aimed at the wrong seam.

Completion Gate

See primitives/shared/AGENTS.md (Prove) for the shared core; this phase adds:

• Root cause: what's actually wrong, classified ROOT vs SYMPTOM.
• Fix: how it was resolved — one change at a time, then the original loop rerun (not just the minimized regression).
• Verification: a log entry, metric, or database state that proves the fix worked — not "the code looks right now". Mark UNVERIFIED until an observable confirms it. Semantic waiver: diagnosis quality ties to the concrete failure and cannot be proven by a static fixture — cite reproduction evidence, the hypothesis test, and the exact command or runtime surface exercised.
• Learning: if the fix revealed a reusable repo-technical pattern, offer /compound while evidence is fresh.