Agent debugger

Agent Debugger

Systematic diagnosis of agent configuration problems in this framework. Every check below is grounded in real files — inspect configuration, run the validators, fix the source of truth, then re-verify. Do not invent runtime logs or metrics; this framework has none.

Ground Truth: Where Configuration Lives

Configuration lives in the agentic-framework plugin (typically at ~/.claude/plugins/cache/agentic-framework/agentic-framework/*/) and is overridden by user-scope copies in ~/.claude/agents/, ~/.claude/commands/, and ~/.claude/skills/:

• agents/<name>.md — agent definition. YAML frontmatter carries name (must equal the filename), description (the routing trigger text Claude Code matches tasks against), model (tier shorthand, e.g. sonnet), color, and the optional effort (reasoning effort: low|medium|high|xhigh|max), mcpServers (list of MCP servers available to the agent; per Claude Code's documentation, not applied to plugin-shipped agents), and tools (comma-separated explicit tool allowlist). The body is the agent's system prompt.
  • Plugin location: ~/.claude/plugins/cache/agentic-framework/agentic-framework/*/agents/<name>.md
  • Override location (if present): ~/.claude/agents/<name>.md (takes priority)
• claude.json — the registry. .sub_agents maps each agent to its config (including model shorthand and focus); .agent_categories partitions the roster into the canonical categories; .consistency.model_shorthand_map defines the only legal model values; .consistency.deprecated_agent_names lists dead names that must never be referenced.
  • Plugin location: ~/.claude/plugins/cache/agentic-framework/agentic-framework/*/claude.json
• hooks/hooks.json — hook registration as shell-form dispatch chains (sh dispatch.sh <name> || pwsh -NoProfile -File <name>.ps1) with ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT} substitution; each hook is a .ps1/.sh pair routed by hooks/dispatch.sh. Hooks are loaded automatically by Claude Code.
  • Plugin location: ~/.claude/plugins/cache/agentic-framework/agentic-framework/*/hooks/hooks.json
• settings.template.json — recommended permissions and alwaysThinkingEnabled for merging into user settings.
  • Plugin location: ~/.claude/plugins/cache/agentic-framework/agentic-framework/*/settings.template.json
• Validators: scripts/validate-consistency.sh (the full anti-drift battery), scripts/validate-hooks.sh (hook pair parity + dispatch), scripts/validate-framework.sh, scripts/generate-docs.sh --check. Tests: tests/hooks.test.ps1 (PowerShell), tests/hooks.test.sh (POSIX shell), tests/hooks-equivalence.test.sh (cross-platform byte-equality).
• Namespaced slash commands for quick inspection: /agentic-framework:list-agents, /agentic-framework:agent-status, /agentic-framework:analyze-framework, /agentic-framework:validate-hooks, /agentic-framework:quality-report.

Note: The cache path format is {marketplace}/{plugin}/{version}/; the repeated agentic-framework/agentic-framework segment is correct and intentional.

Debug Workflow

1. Classify the symptom: not found / wrong routing / model error / hook not firing / validator failure.
2. Run the battery first — it localizes most problems for you:

   bash scripts/validate-consistency.sh   # numbered checks, PASS/FAIL per check, aggregates all failures
   

3. Apply the matching playbook below.
4. Verify (see Verify the Fix).

Playbook: Agent Not Found or Not Loading

# Check plugin location first (default)
ls ~/.claude/plugins/cache/agentic-framework/agentic-framework/*/agents/<name>.md        # file exists, exactly matching name?
# Or check override location (if applicable)
ls ~/.claude/agents/<name>.md                                  # override present?

# Check registry
jq '.sub_agents["<name>"]' ~/.claude/plugins/cache/agentic-framework/agentic-framework/*/claude.json    # registered?

# Check frontmatter (from plugin or override)
head -10 ~/.claude/plugins/cache/agentic-framework/agentic-framework/*/agents/<name>.md   # frontmatter sane?
# or: head -10 ~/.claude/agents/<name>.md

# Check for deprecated names
jq -r '.consistency.deprecated_agent_names[]' ~/.claude/plugins/cache/agentic-framework/agentic-framework/*/claude.json   # is the name dead/legacy?

Check 1 of validate-consistency.sh reports both failure directions: missing-md (registered in claude.json but no agents/<name>.md) and orphan-md (file exists but not registered). Fix by adding the missing side, never by deleting the working side.

Frontmatter requirements: opens and closes with ---; name: equals the filename stem; description: is a single line with concrete trigger phrasing; model: is a key of .consistency.model_shorthand_map; color: present. A malformed frontmatter block silently prevents loading — validate YAML before anything else.

Also confirm the agent appears in exactly one .agent_categories category (check 2 fails on missing or duplicated membership).

Playbook: Task Routed to the Wrong Agent

Routing is driven by the description frontmatter of each agent (Claude Code matches the task against it) plus the routing tables in CLAUDE.md and the /agentic-framework:delegate command logic in commands/delegate.md.

1. Read the description of both the expected agent and the one that won. Overlapping trigger phrasing is the usual cause.
2. Sharpen the losing agent's description with concrete technologies, file types, and example triggers; remove ambiguous claims from the winner.
3. Check CLAUDE.md's routing table lists the agent under the right domain, and that .agent_categories places it in the correct category.
4. For a one-off, add an explicit routing hint in the task itself ("use rust-expert").

Remember the review chain: code-review-gatekeeper reviews first; peer-review-critic is the mandatory final reviewer of branch-vs-base before work is declared done. Routing review work anywhere else is a routing bug.

Playbook: Model Mismatch (Parity Check 7)

Both sides must hold the SAME tier shorthand, and each value must be a declared key of .consistency.model_shorthand_map:

grep -m1 '^model:' agents/<name>.md
jq -r '.sub_agents["<name>"].model' claude.json
jq -r '.consistency.model_shorthand_map | keys[]' claude.json

Check 7 fails on: missing frontmatter model:, empty registry model, a value not in the map (typos like sonnett), or any md-vs-registry divergence. Fix by editing BOTH files to the same shorthand — never introduce full model IDs in either place; the shorthand map is the single source of truth.

Playbook: Hook Not Firing or Stop Gate Misbehaving

Hooks are real Claude Code hooks — PowerShell 7 (.ps1) and POSIX shell (.sh) script pairs, routed by dispatch.sh, registered in hooks/hooks.json of the agentic-framework plugin.

# Check plugin hook registration
jq '.hooks.Stop' ~/.claude/plugins/cache/agentic-framework/agentic-framework/*/hooks/hooks.json    # hook registration for Stop event

# Verify plugin is installed
/plugin list | grep agentic-framework

# Check hook scripts exist (each hook is a .ps1/.sh pair plus dispatch.sh)
ls ~/.claude/plugins/cache/agentic-framework/agentic-framework/*/hooks/*.ps1 \
   ~/.claude/plugins/cache/agentic-framework/agentic-framework/*/hooks/*.sh

# Validate hook registration parity
/agentic-framework:validate-hooks

# Verify pwsh 7+ is available
pwsh -NoProfile -Command '$PSVersionTable.PSVersion'

# Verify jq is available (required for POSIX hook implementations)
command -v jq && jq --version

Common causes, in order of likelihood:

• Plugin not installed or not enabled: run /plugin install agentic-framework@agentic-framework and verify with /plugin list.
• The session predates the plugin install: hooks load at session start, so restart Claude Code after installing.
• On Linux/macOS, jq missing from PATH — hooks load and fire (visible in transcript), but enforcement is disarmed. The SessionStart hook prints a [session-context] warning when jq is absent, confirming the symptom. Fix: install jq (apt-get install jq on Debian/Ubuntu; brew install jq on macOS), then restart Claude Code.
• Matcher mismatch: record-subagent-run fires on PostToolUse Task|Agent and on SubagentStop; pretooluse-delegation-hint on PreToolUse Write|Edit (each name = its .ps1/.sh pair). An event without a matching tool never fires.
• Plugin cache stale: try /plugin uninstall agentic-framework and then /plugin install agentic-framework@agentic-framework.

Check 3 of validate-consistency.sh asserts pair parity: every hook name in hooks/hooks.json has both .ps1 and .sh implementations; dispatch.sh is present and referenced in every registered chain; no orphans on either side. (The name allowlist inside dispatch.sh itself is not validator-checked — keep it in sync by hand.) Behavior is covered by tests/hooks.test.ps1 (PowerShell) and tests/hooks.test.sh (POSIX).

Stop-gate specifics: stop-peer-review-gate.ps1 blocks session end only when a feature branch has committed work ahead of its base and the latest peer-review-critic run this session did not record VERDICT: APPROVED (verdicts are parsed into the session marker by record-subagent-run.ps1; blocks are bounded — once with no review, up to 3 on CHANGES_REQUIRED). It is loop-safe and fail-open — if it appears to "block forever", verify the recorder hook is registered and firing, since the gate clears based on its records. Design rationale lives in docs/design/.

Playbook: Consistency Validator Failures

validate-consistency.sh derives all truth at runtime from claude.json plus the filesystem — nothing is hardcoded. Read each FAIL line; it names the check and the offending items. Frequent ones:

• Check 5 (deprecated names): a doc or config still references a dead agent name. Replace with the current name from the registry.
• Check 8 (stated-count scan): a doc states a headline count that no longer matches derived reality. Do not hand-edit numbers into docs — remove the count or let the generator own it.
• Check 11 (stale generated blocks): run bash scripts/generate-docs.sh --write to regenerate, then re-check.
• Checks 9/10 (prose tables / README focus text): update the table cell to match .sub_agents[<agent>].focus or the roster exactly.

Verify the Fix

bash scripts/validate-consistency.sh && echo OK   # must exit 0
bash scripts/validate-hooks.sh
bash scripts/generate-docs.sh --check
pwsh -NoProfile -File tests/hooks.test.ps1        # after any hook change

Then confirm the original symptom is gone (e.g. re-issue the task and watch it route correctly, or restart a session and confirm the hook fires).

Prevention

• Edit agents/<name>.md and claude.json together, in the same commit; the validators treat divergence as a blocking failure.
• Never hardcode rosters, counts, or model IDs into docs — reference the registry (claude.json) and let generate-docs.sh produce derived content.
• Run the validator battery before every commit touching agents/, hooks/, claude.json, or hooks/hooks.json.
• After changing hook scripts or registration in hooks/hooks.json, reinstall or update the plugin and restart Claude Code.
• Beware leftover legacy clones in ~/.claude/ that shadow the plugin agents — run /agentic-framework:migrate-legacy to resolve.