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root-cause-tracing

Use when errors occur deep in execution and you need to trace back to find the original trigger - systematically traces bugs backward through call stack, adding instrumentation when needed, to identify source of invalid data or incorrect behavior

60

Quality

75%

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tessl review fix ./.agency/plugins/nori/skills/root-cause-tracing/SKILL.md
SKILL.md
Quality
Evals
Security

Quality

Content

63%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 teaches a genuinely useful backward-tracing procedure with concrete code, commands, and decision flowcharts, but it is undermined by duplicated sections (Adding Stack Traces vs Stack Trace Tips; Tracing Process vs Real Example), a dated incident-report section, and a referenced bisection script that is missing from the bundle. Tightening the duplication and either shipping or removing find-polluter.sh would lift conciseness and progressive disclosure.

Suggestions

Merge 'Stack Trace Tips' into 'Adding Stack Traces' and fold 'Real Example: Empty projectDir' into 'The Tracing Process' (or replace the process steps with the real example) to remove the duplicated content.

Delete the 'Real-World Impact' section — the dated 2025-10-03 status report ('1847 tests passed') is stale incident trivia with no instructional value.

Add a final verification step to the workflow (e.g., re-run the failing test or polluter bisection to confirm the source fix eliminates the symptom), and either include the referenced scripts/find-polluter.sh in the bundle or remove the reference and inline its essential usage.

DimensionReasoningScore

Conciseness

Mostly efficient — concrete code and commands, no tutorial padding — but there is real duplication: 'Stack Trace Tips' repeats advice already given in 'Adding Stack Traces' (console.error vs logger, log before the operation, include context, capture stack), and 'Real Example: Empty projectDir' re-tells the same trace already walked in 'The Tracing Process'. 'Real-World Impact' adds little beyond a dated status report ('From debugging session (2025-10-03)... 1847 tests passed'). This fits 'mostly efficient but includes some unnecessary explanation or could be tightened' rather than the 4 anchor, which expects only minor trimming.

3 / 5

Actionability

Gives a concrete five-step tracing procedure with guiding questions ('What code directly causes this?', 'What called this?', 'What value was passed?'), copy-adaptable instrumentation code with a capture command ('npm test 2>&1 | grep \'DEBUG git init\''), and a runnable bisection invocation ('./find-polluter.sh \'.git\' \'.src/**/*.test.ts\''). Falls short of fully copy-paste-ready 5 because the code is illustrative of one past incident and the referenced script is not present in the bundle.

4 / 5

Workflow Clarity

The process is clearly sequenced (Observe the Symptom → Find Immediate Cause → What Called This → Keep Tracing Up → Find Original Trigger) with two decision flowcharts giving explicit yes/no branches and a stop condition, plus a bisection loop for isolating polluters. Not a 5 because there is no explicit validation checkpoint confirming the identified root cause (e.g., verify the fix eliminates the symptom) — the feedback loop ends at 'fix at source'.

4 / 5

Progressive Disclosure

Sections are well organized and the body is a reasonable single-file length, but the one external reference is dangling: the body says 'Use the bisection script: @find-polluter.sh' and 'See script for usage', yet no scripts/ directory (or any bundle file) exists, so the reference cannot be followed. This matches 'some structure but could be better organized; references present but not clearly signaled' rather than 4, where references would be real and navigable.

3 / 5

Total

14

/

20

Passed

Description

75%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.

A strong description: explicit 'Use when...' trigger paired with concrete, domain-specific capabilities in third person. Main gaps are missing common synonyms ('root cause', 'stack trace') and a single-trigger when-clause rather than a broader set of trigger phrases.

DimensionReasoningScore

Specificity

Names concrete actions in a specific domain — 'systematically traces bugs backward through call stack, adding instrumentation when needed, to identify source of invalid data or incorrect behavior' — but coverage of actions is not comprehensive (e.g., no mention of bisection or analyzing stack traces), matching the 'several specific actions; minor gaps' anchor rather than the comprehensive anchor at 5.

4 / 5

Completeness

Explicitly answers both: what ('systematically traces bugs backward through call stack, adding instrumentation when needed, to identify source of invalid data or incorrect behavior') and when ('Use when errors occur deep in execution and you need to trace back to find the original trigger'). Falls at 4 rather than 5 because the when-clause covers a single trigger scenario, whereas the 5 anchor expects multiple concrete trigger phrases.

4 / 5

Trigger Term Quality

Contains natural debugging phrases users would say — 'errors occur deep in execution', 'trace back to find the original trigger', 'bugs', 'call stack', 'invalid data' — but misses common synonyms like 'root cause', 'stack trace', or 'debug', matching 'good keyword coverage; a few natural terms missing' rather than the synonym-complete anchor at 5.

4 / 5

Distinctiveness Conflict Risk

The niche — backward bug tracing through the call stack when errors surface far from their origin — is distinct and unlikely to hijack unrelated skills, though it overlaps somewhat with general debugging skills. 'Mostly distinct; minor overlap risk with closely related skills' fits better than the minimal-conflict anchor at 5 or the broad-overlap anchors below.

4 / 5

Total

16

/

20

Passed

Validation

100%

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

Validation — 16 / 16 Passed

Validation for skill structure

No warnings or errors.

Repository
microsoft/FluidFramework
Reviewed

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