Systematic debugging
Skill swd3k/skills/agent-skills/programming/systematic-debugging
Debug software issues with a structured reproduce → isolate → fix → regress loop. Use when facing white screens, flaky CI, production-only bugs, or vague 'it doesn't work' reports.From its SKILL.md
npx -y skills add swd3k/skills --skill systematic-debuggingAssembled from the repository path, not quoted from the project. Check it against their README if it does not work.
One thing to look at
- 0 stars0 stars. Stars are a popularity signal and not a quality one, but at this level it is likely that nobody has read this closely except its author, and you would be relying on your own review.
SKILL.md
1.4 KB, 304 tokens by cl100k_base, as published. Nobody here has run it
Systematic Debugging
Loop
- Reproduce — exact steps, OS, version, artifact (not only source).
- Define expected vs actual in one sentence each.
- Bisect — last known good commit/tag/build.
- Isolate layer — UI / host bridge / service / OS / network / packaging.
- Hypothesize one cause — test cheapest disproof first.
- Fix minimal — no drive-by refactors in the same commit.
- Regress — add a test or checklist item so it can't return silently.
Evidence > intuition
- Logs with timestamps
- Exit codes
- Network traces
- Screenshots / screen recordings
git bisectwhen regression window is large
Desktop-specific
| Symptom | First checks |
|---|---|
| White screen | asset load path, CSS blocked, JS throw |
| Works in VS, fails installed | cwd, relative paths, missing runtime |
| CI only | path case, secrets, runner OS, corrupted downloads |
| Admin only | manifest, UAC cancel path |
Output when reporting
- Root cause (one paragraph)
- Fix (what changed)
- How verified
- Residual risk
Pitfalls
- Changing 5 things at once
- "Fixed" without reproduction of original failure
- Ignoring the packaging step (only testing
dotnet run)
What ships with it
Read from the repository
Just SKILL.md. No reference files, no scripts.