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root-cause-analysis

Performs systematic root cause analysis to identify the true source of bugs, errors, and unexpected behavior through structured investigation phases — not just treating symptoms. Use when a user reports a bug, crash, error, or broken behavior and needs to debug, troubleshoot, or investigate why something is not working; especially for complex or intermittent issues across multiple components. Applies the Five Whys method, hypothesis-driven testing, stack trace analysis, git blame/log evidence gathering, and causal chain documentation to isolate and confirm root causes before applying any fix.

67

Quality

81%

Does it follow best practices?

Impact

No eval scenarios have been run

SecuritybySnyk

Passed

No known issues

SKILL.md
Quality
Evals
Security

Quality

Content

62%

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

This is a solid methodological skill with excellent workflow clarity — the five-phase investigation process with verification checklists and feedback loops is well-designed. Its main weaknesses are moderate verbosity (explaining debugging concepts Claude likely knows, like common root cause categories) and limited concrete actionability beyond the git commands and documentation template. The content would benefit from being more concise and either providing more executable debugging examples or splitting supplementary material into referenced files.

Suggestions

Trim or remove the 'Common Root Cause Categories' section — Claude already knows these categories and they consume tokens without adding actionable guidance.

Add more concrete, executable debugging examples (e.g., how to add targeted logging, how to isolate a race condition with a specific technique) rather than describing the process abstractly.

Consider extracting the documentation template and hypothesis table format into separate referenced files to improve progressive disclosure and reduce the main file's length.

DimensionReasoningScore

Conciseness

The skill is reasonably well-structured but includes some unnecessary elaboration. The 'Common Root Cause Categories' section lists things Claude already knows, and some of the Phase descriptions could be tightened. The 'Red Flags' section adds value but the explanatory sentence at the end is redundant.

2 / 3

Actionability

The skill provides a clear methodology and some concrete bash commands for evidence gathering, plus a documentation template. However, it's primarily a process/methodology guide rather than executable instructions — the hypothesis table is illustrative but not directly actionable, and there are no concrete code examples for actually debugging (e.g., adding logging, inspecting state). The guidance is more descriptive than prescriptive.

2 / 3

Workflow Clarity

The five investigation phases are clearly sequenced with explicit validation checkpoints (Phase 5 has a verification checklist, Phase 4 includes feedback loops for rejected hypotheses). The workflow handles the iterative nature of debugging well with clear 'if rejected' branching and a checklist before declaring root cause found.

3 / 3

Progressive Disclosure

The content is well-organized with clear sections and headers, and references other skills at the end. However, for a skill of this length (~120 lines of substantive content), some sections like the hypothesis table example, common root cause categories, and documentation template could be split into referenced files. Everything is inline in a single monolithic file.

2 / 3

Total

9

/

12

Passed

Description

100%

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

This is an excellent skill description that clearly articulates what the skill does (systematic root cause analysis using specific methodologies), when to use it (bugs, crashes, errors, broken behavior), and how it differentiates from simpler debugging approaches (structured investigation, not just symptom treatment). It uses third person voice consistently and includes rich, natural trigger terms that users would actually say.

DimensionReasoningScore

Specificity

Lists multiple specific concrete actions: Five Whys method, hypothesis-driven testing, stack trace analysis, git blame/log evidence gathering, causal chain documentation, and structured investigation phases. Very detailed about what it does.

3 / 3

Completeness

Clearly answers both 'what' (systematic root cause analysis through structured investigation phases, Five Whys, hypothesis-driven testing, etc.) and 'when' (explicit 'Use when' clause specifying bugs, crashes, errors, broken behavior, complex or intermittent issues). Both are well-articulated.

3 / 3

Trigger Term Quality

Excellent coverage of natural terms users would say: 'bug', 'crash', 'error', 'broken behavior', 'debug', 'troubleshoot', 'investigate', 'not working', 'intermittent issues'. These are highly natural phrases users would use when encountering problems.

3 / 3

Distinctiveness Conflict Risk

Clearly carved out niche: root cause analysis and deep debugging methodology, distinct from general coding skills or simple error fixing. The emphasis on structured investigation, Five Whys, and causal chain documentation makes it unlikely to conflict with generic code-fixing or code-review skills.

3 / 3

Total

12

/

12

Passed

Validation

90%

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

Validation10 / 11 Passed

Validation for skill structure

CriteriaDescriptionResult

frontmatter_unknown_keys

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

Warning

Total

10

/

11

Passed

Repository
rohitg00/skillkit
Reviewed

Table of Contents

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