diagnosing-bugs
Skill4 starsChanged 3 days agoMITView on GitHub
Disciplined diagnosis loop for hard bugs and performance regressions — reproduce → minimize → hypothesize → instrument → fix → regression-test. Use for "hard to debug", "only happens sometimes", "works locally but not on the server", "slow page", "memory leak", "strange behavior".
194 other projects use a version of this.
Adopted by
Most recently taken up by
- theishandubey/dotclaudetheir own version, first seen Nov 15, 2026
- geoffbremner/skillstheir own version, first seen Nov 15, 2026
- ychampion/ystacktheir own version, first seen Nov 15, 2026
- quickchatai/quickreviewtheir own version, first seen Nov 15, 2026
- HiteSit/real-scientist-skillstheir own version, first seen Nov 15, 2026
- alexj11324/Mikkatheir own version, first seen Nov 15, 2026
Used with
Projects with it also use setup-ts-deep-modules, loop-me and 10 more.
Other files people use alongside this one.
Files found in the same public projects as a version of this one, more often than they turn up anywhere else. Each project counts once, large collections count for less, and this file's own repository is left out.
liufeng1976Skillsetup-ts-deep-modules
Wire dependency-cruiser into a TypeScript repo so each package is a deep module — implementation hidden in subfolders, reachable only through its entry-point files. User-invoked.
Also in 43 projects that use this
RoentekSkillloop-me
Grill me about specs for the workflows I want to build, within this workspace.
Also in 55 projects that use this
LesaniSkillwriting-beats
Shape an article as a journey of beats, choose-your-own-adventure style. The user picks a starting beat from the raw material, you write only that beat, then offer options for where to pivot next, beat by beat, until the article reaches a natural end. Use when the user has raw material and wants to assemble it as a narrative rather than an argument.
Also in 58 projects that use this
AWSSkillto-questionnaire
Turn a decision you can't fully answer into a questionnaire for someone else to fill in.
Also in 88 projects that use this
- LesaniSkill
writing-shape
Take a markdown file of raw material and shape it into an article through a conversational session — drafting candidate openings, growing the piece paragraph by paragraph, arguing about format (lists, tables, callouts, quotes) at each step. Use when the user has a pile of notes, fragments, or a rough draft and wants help turning it into something publishable.
Also in 56 projects that use this
- AWSSkill
wizard
Generate an interactive bash wizard that walks a human through steps only they can perform. Use when provisioning infrastructure, setting up credentials or CI secrets, walking an unfamiliar third-party dashboard, or running a one-off migration or cutover. Don't invoke this for steps the agent can perform itself.
Also in 122 projects that use this
- +1 more from Lesani
- +2 more from aws
Other versions194 projects use a version of this.
Word for word · 0
None found.
Edited · 0
None found.
Wrote their own version · 194
- mattpocock/skills★ 309ksame name
- QuivrHQ/quivr★ 40ksame name
- The-Vibe-Company/quivr★ 40ksame name
- GreyDGL/PentestGPT★ 16ksame name
- ArcReel/ArcReel★ 6.3ksame name
- vinvcn/mattpocock-skills-zh-CN★ 5.5ksame name
- withcoral/coral★ 4.9ksame name
- bestofjs/bestofjs★ 3.1ksame name
- getsentry/sentry-react-native★ 1.8ksame name
- ChatbotXIO/ChatbotX★ 1.1ksame name
184 more not listed
How matches are found. Word for word: the exact same text. Edited: shares passages with this file (“99% same” means 99% of its five-word phrases also appear here; 10% or more counts). Their own version: similar meaning, or, weakest, the same name. We can’t tell which project had it first. Projects are counted among the 200 most-starred candidates, and mentions are links to the repository we found, up to 50 per site, so both counts are a floor.
In this repository44 other files it gives its agents.
- AGENTS.mdAGENTS.md
- domain-modelingSkill
- fixSkill
- frontend-designSkill
- grill-meSkill
- grill-with-docsSkill
- gsap-coreSkill
- gsap-performanceSkill
- gsap-pluginsSkill
- gsap-scrolltriggerSkill
- gsap-timelineSkill
- gsap-utilsSkill
- handoffSkill
- landing-page-conversion-auditSkill
- refactorSkill
- researchSkill
- reviewSkill
- share-learningSkill
- tddSkill
- threejs-animationSkill
- threejs-fundamentalsSkill
- threejs-geometrySkill
- threejs-interactionSkill
- threejs-lightingSkill
- threejs-loadersSkill
- threejs-materialsSkill
- threejs-postprocessingSkill
- threejs-shadersSkill
- threejs-texturesSkill
- to-specSkill
- to-ticketsSkill
- verifySkill
- wp-accessibilitySkill
- wp-accessibility-standardsSkill
- wp-css-standardsSkill
- wp-github-actions-standardsSkill
- wp-html-standardsSkill
- wp-i18nSkill
- wp-js-standardsSkill
- wp-performanceSkill
- wp-php-standardsSkill
- wp-pluginSkill
- wp-security-auditSkill
- wp-themeSkill
The file
We split this skill into the rules it gives an agent
3 rules. 0 are common, 3 are distinctive, and 0 are very specific to this project.
0
Common
Most of the 183 edited versions we read keep these.
3
Distinctive
This author's own choices. Worth a look.
0
Very specific
Tied to their project's names, files or tools. Probably skip.
- Common
- Distinctive
- Very specific
- Distinctive: line 13
No repro → you're guessing.
- Distinctive: line 27
Verify the hypothesis with evidence before editing:
- Distinctive: line 47
Never "fix" by masking symptoms (adding a delay, hiding the element, swallowing the error) without naming what it's masking
“Common” is measured: kept by at least 6 in 10 of the 183 edited versions of this file we could read. “Very specific” is our guess from the words: it names a file, a command, a setting or the project itself.
Files
Diagnosing Bugs — The Loop
For bugs that resist direct fixes. The loop, in order — do not skip ahead.
1. Reproduce
Get it on screen deterministically. If it's intermittent, capture the conditions (browser, viewport, reduced-motion state, logged-in user, ACF fields present). No repro → you're guessing. A repro that takes 5 minutes is better than a hypothesis that takes 20.
2. Minimize
Strip the case down: disable half the code paths (comments/toggles), find the minimal
input that triggers it. Bisect git history when a recent change is suspected —
git bisect or manual bisect across commits. Blame the affected file's history, not
the commit the bug report names.
3. Hypothesize
Name the cause in one sentence, with the mechanism: "X happens because Y, which leads to Z." If the sentence needs "I think"/"maybe", you're not ready — instrument instead.
4. Instrument
Verify the hypothesis with evidence before editing:
- PHP: targeted logging (error_log with context), Query Monitor, step through the data flow
- JS/CSS: console, computed styles, forced layout measurement, screenshots — the
chrome-devtoolsMCP when available - WordPress: check what's actually enqueued/loaded on the page, which options/transients
are hit, template file actually in use (
{$type}_templatefilters)
5. Fix
Smallest fix that addresses the named mechanism — scope confined to the bug's files.
6. Regression-test
The repro passes; the canonical verification chain is green (build → format:all:check
→ phpcs → phpstan, see docs/verification-chain.md). Record the cause + fix in the
project's self-evolving learnings log if non-obvious.
Rules
- Standard bugs that don't need this depth → the fix skill workflow (this loop is for hard/intermittent cases); this skill is the escalation, not the default
- 2-attempt limit per hypothesis; after 2 failed fixes, stop and re-instrument
- Never "fix" by masking symptoms (adding a delay, hiding the element, swallowing the error) without naming what it's masking
- Visual bugs: if a CSS fix fails twice, propose 3 fundamentally different approaches and let the user pick
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Your trail
Files you open will collect here, so you can find them again.
Open two or more, and you can remix the rules you like from each into one list. Kept in this browser only.
Now do this for your own.
Bring your CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md or skills. agentleFS shows which of your rules are common, which are yours and which only fit one project, and keeps one version your agents read everywhere.