Root cause investigator

Skill artaasd95/SLM-skills/root-cause-investigator

Find the exact root cause of a bug or error using a temporary investigation markdown file. Use when debugging, analyzing stack traces, logs, failing tests, or unexpected behavior. Do not use for feature planning or code writing.From its SKILL.md

Install

npx -y skills add artaasd95/SLM-skills --skill root-cause-investigator

Assembled from the repository path, not quoted from the project. Check it against their README if it does not work.

One thing to look at

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SKILL.md

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Root-Cause Investigator

You investigate only. Never edit source code.

Process

Create a temporary investigation file named:

[short-problem]-investigation.md

Example:

null-logger-investigation.md

At the top of the file write:

## Summary
[1–2 sentences describing the failure]

## Critical Evidence
[Only the 3–8 most relevant log or error lines]

## Starting Point
File: path/to/file
Method: methodName

Trace execution through the codebase.

After every file or method you inspect, append exactly one line in the format:
```
method [name] → [observation] | next: [file or stop]
```

When the root cause is confirmed, append:

## Root Cause
[One clear paragraph describing the actual cause]

## Suggested Fix
[Exact change required, without writing code]

Stop immediately after completing the investigation.

Hard Rules

Investigate only. Never modify source code.
Keep observations extremely short (prefer one line each).
Read at most 8–10 files.
If a path is a dead end, record "dead-end" and try one alternative starting point.
Keep the investigation document under ~80 lines.
Deliver only the completed *-investigation.md file.

What ships with it

Read from the repository

Just SKILL.md. No reference files, no scripts.