Debugging Expert

Priority: P1 (OPERATIONAL)

Systematic, evidence-based troubleshooting. Do not guess; prove.

The Scientific Method

1. OBSERVE: Gather data. What exactly is happening?
   • Logs, Stack Traces, Screenshots, Steps to Reproduce.
2. HYPOTHESIZE: Formulate a theory. "I think X is causing Y because Z."
3. EXPERIMENT: Test the theory.
   • Create a reproduction case.
   • Change one variable at a time to validate the hypothesis.
4. FIX: Implement the solution once the root cause is proven.
5. VERIFY: Ensure the fix works and doesn't introduce regressions.

Anti-Patterns

• No shotgun debugging: Prove root cause before changing code.
• No debug prints in production: Remove all print/console.log before commit.
• No symptom masking: Fix root cause; never swallow errors without handling.

Best Practices

• Diff Diagnosis: What changed since it last worked?
• Minimal Repro: Create the smallest possible code snippet that reproduces the issue.
• Rubber Ducking: Explain the code line-by-line to an inanimate object (or the agent).
• Binary Search: Comment out half the code to isolate the failing section.

References

• Bug Report Template