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debugging

To investigate errors, test failures, and unexpected behavior — root cause before fix.

Quality

71%

Does it follow best practices?

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SecuritybySnyk

Passed

No findings from the security scan

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tessl review fix ./instructions/r2/core/skills/debugging/SKILL.md
SKILL.md
Quality
Evals
Security

Quality

Content

73%Weight 40%Scale 1-5

Reviews the quality of instructions and guidance provided to agents. Good implementation is clear, handles edge cases, and produces reliable results.

The body delivers a strong, well-sequenced debugging methodology with explicit validation checkpoints, feedback loops, and a checklist — workflow clarity is excellent. Its weaknesses are redundancy (best_practices and pitfalls restate the phases) and unexplained jargon ('OODA', 'Rosetta prep steps') that dilute token efficiency and actionability.

Suggestions

Remove or merge the 'best_practices' and 'pitfalls' sections, which largely restate steps already in phases 1-3, or trim them to only non-duplicated items.

Explain or remove unexplained jargon: 'OODA' appears without expansion, and 'All Rosetta prep steps MUST be FULLY completed, load-context skill loaded' references a context the skill never defines.

Consider converting the XML-style tags to standard markdown headers for more conventional navigation and scanning.

DimensionReasoningScore

Conciseness

The body is mostly lean, but the 'best_practices' and 'pitfalls' sections largely restate phase content ('Check recent changes early in investigation' repeats phase 1 step 3; 'Stacking multiple fixes without validating each' repeats phase 3), and 'OODA' plus 'All Rosetta prep steps' add unexplained overhead. It fits anchor 3 — mostly efficient but could be tightened.

3 / 5

Actionability

The guidance is concrete and executable for an instruction-only skill: 'git diff, new dependencies, config changes', 'add diagnostic logging at each boundary', 'State one clear hypothesis: "X is the root cause because Y"', 'Create a failing test that reproduces the bug', and a clear escalation rule at 3+ failed fixes. Minor gaps ('OODA' and 'Rosetta prep steps' are never explained) keep it at anchor 4 rather than 5.

4 / 5

Workflow Clarity

Four explicitly sequenced phases with an upfront gate ('BEFORE attempting ANY fix'), a validation checklist, and built-in feedback loops ('If it fails, form a new hypothesis — don't stack fixes'; 'stop fixing and question the architecture' after 3+ failures). This matches anchor 5: clear sequence, explicit validation steps, error-recovery loops, and a checklist.

5 / 5

Progressive Disclosure

There are no bundle files (no references/, scripts/, or assets/), and the self-contained body is well organized into role, phases, checklist, best practices, and pitfalls — nothing clearly belongs in a separate file. It misses anchor 5 because the body is ~97 lines (above the under-50-line simple-skill exception) and uses idiosyncratic XML-style tags with an unexplained external reference ('load-context skill') rather than clean markdown navigation.

4 / 5

Total

16

/

20

Passed

Description

57%Weight 40%Scale 1-5

Based on the skill's description, can an agent find and select it at the right time? Clear, specific descriptions lead to better discovery.

The description is concise and names a clear domain with a distinctive principle, but it lacks an explicit 'Use when...' trigger clause, omits common synonyms like 'bug' and 'debug', and does not enumerate specific capabilities. It reads as a tagline rather than a complete trigger-rich description.

Suggestions

Add an explicit 'Use when...' clause, e.g. 'Use when encountering errors, test failures, bugs, crashes, or unexpected behavior, or when a previous fix failed.'

Include common trigger synonyms users actually say — 'bug', 'debug', 'crash', 'broken', 'regression' — to improve trigger term coverage.

List 1-2 more concrete capabilities (e.g. 'reproduce failures, trace data flow to the source, create failing tests that confirm the root cause') to raise specificity.

DimensionReasoningScore

Specificity

The description names the domain ('investigate errors, test failures, and unexpected behavior') and one general action plus a principle ('root cause before fix'), but lists no specific concrete capabilities. It matches anchor 3 (domain plus 1-2 actions, not comprehensive); anchor 4 requires several specific actions listed.

3 / 5

Completeness

The 'what' is stated clearly (investigate errors and find root cause before fixing), but there is no 'Use when...' clause or equivalent explicit trigger guidance; the 'when' is only weakly implied by the 'what'. Per the judging guideline, a missing 'Use when...' clause caps completeness at 3.

3 / 5

Trigger Term Quality

'errors', 'test failures', and 'unexpected behavior' are natural phrases users would say when they need this skill — good coverage. Common synonyms like 'bug', 'debug', 'crash', or 'broken' are missing, so it does not reach anchor 5; it exceeds anchor 3, which expects only some relevant keywords.

4 / 5

Distinctiveness Conflict Risk

'errors, test failures, unexpected behavior' is broad and overlaps with test-writing, CI, and tool-specific skills, though 'root cause before fix' signals a debugging niche. It is somewhat specific but could still overlap with similar skills — anchor 3.

3 / 5

Total

13

/

20

Passed

Validation

93%

Checks the skill against the spec for correct structure and formatting. All validation checks must pass before discovery and implementation can be scored.

Validation — 15 / 16 Passed

Validation for skill structure

CriteriaDescriptionResult

frontmatter_unknown_keys

Unknown frontmatter key(s) found; consider removing or moving to metadata

Warning

Total

15

/

16

Passed

Repository

griddynamics/rosetta

Path

instructions/r2/core/skills/debugging/SKILL.md

Reviewed

Table of Contents

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