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jmporchetjmporchet/pstack-hermes/skills/principle-fix-root-causes/SKILL.md

principle-fix-root-causes

Skill2 starsChanged 2 months agoMITView on GitHub

Apply when debugging. Trace each symptom to its root cause and fix it there; reproduce first, ask why until you reach it, resist nil-check guards that silence crashes.

48 other projects use a version of this, 44 of them edited.

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Used with

Projects with it also use principle-explain-the-number, poteto-help and 8 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.
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    maintain-formal-verification-skill

    Bring a project's formal verification back in line with the code after the code changes: find the commits that touched verified code, update the model, harness, or properties to describe the code as it is now, rerun, and say whether each failure is drift in the verification or a bug in the code. Use for /maintain-formal-verification-skill, \"is the model still true to the code\", or after merges and refactors that touched verified code without rechecking it.

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  • +1 more from TheOnlyFusionCube

The file

We split this skill into the rules it gives an agent

5 rules. 2 are common, 3 are distinctive, and 0 are very specific to this project.

  • 2

    Common

    Most of the 48 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
  1. Distinctive:

    When debugging, do not paper over symptoms.

    line 8
  2. Common:

    Ask "why" until you hit the root cause

    line 14
  3. Common:

    If a workaround needs a paragraph-long comment to justify it, the code is wrong (fix the code, not the comment)

    line 16
  4. Distinctive:

    Check for the pattern, not just the instance (grep for the same pattern, fix all instances)

    line 17
  5. Distinctive:

    When stuck, instrument. Don't guess (add logging, read the actual error)

    line 18

“Common” is measured: kept by at least 6 in 10 of the 48 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.

Keep what fits and drop the rest. Your version, ready for your agents.
Files
SKILL.md

Fix Root Causes

When debugging, do not paper over symptoms. Trace every problem to its root cause and fix it there.

Why: Symptom fixes accumulate. Each workaround makes the system harder to reason about, and the real bug remains. Root-cause fixes are slower upfront but reduce total debugging time.

Pattern:

  • Reproduce first (if you can't reproduce it, you can't verify your fix)
  • Ask "why" until you hit the root cause
  • Resist the urge to add guards (adding a nil check to silence a crash is a symptom fix)
  • If a workaround needs a paragraph-long comment to justify it, the code is wrong (fix the code, not the comment)
  • Check for the pattern, not just the instance (grep for the same pattern, fix all instances)
  • When stuck, instrument. Don't guess (add logging, read the actual error)

Restart bugs: suspect state before code

Code doesn't change between runs. State does. When something "fails after restart," suspect stale persistent state first: config files, caches, lock files, serialized state. If clearing a state file restores behavior, prioritize state validation as the fix.

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